Himitsu
by nowyouseemenowyoudont
Summary: Kagome has a secret she feels is best left hidden but can Sesshoumaru leave her alone? Written for weekly perfection prompts on dokuga contest.
1. Secrets Made Public

Title: Secrets Made Public  
Author: aimee_blue/ nowyouseemenowyoudont  
Prompt: Public  
Genre: Romance/ Humour  
AU/CU: AU  
Rating: T  
Warnings: None  
Word count: 100  
Summary: Secrets mean nothing to him.

***

He had publicised it. Her dirty little secret revealed.  
The bastard.  
Curse social networking sites' penchant for gossip mongering; her little secret had swept through the office like bubonic plague.  
It was public knowledge now, not her private college mistake. How he had discovered it she would never know. She had believed her carefully cultivated facade of good-girl-ness to be infallible, but she was misguided.  
She returned to her desk to find the image flaunted by the monitor; Kagome, posed, bikini-clad, on a vintage motorbike. The spiteful sniggers were cut short by her piercing glare.  
She would have his blood.

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha


	2. Secrets Left Hidden

Title: Secrets Left Hidden

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Obstacle (One Shot #36)

Genre: Humour, Romance

Word Count: 1,158

Warnings: none

Summary: Continues from my 'Public' drabble: Secrets Made Public. Kagome fumes over Sesshoumaru's behaviour.

He was dead, so very completely, utterly dead. If only she could overcome the impractical obstacle of the law. The law was the only obstacle between her and her prey. Sesshoumaru Taisho.

That and the fact that she was pretty sure murder wasn't in her blood.

She watched him that day, the day after he exposed her old college dare that Inuyasha had coerced her into, and she had tried to melt him with the force of her stares alone.

Of course, directly after realising who must have kept the photos, she had called Inuyasha and promised retribution so heinous he'd wish he were dead.

But it wasn't really Inuyasha's fault. It was his half-brother's and, when she had glowered at him after the aforementioned 'incident', he had the audacity to simply wink at her.

She'd thrown her snow globe at him and he had dodged with a conceited ease. He rolled his eyes.

"Aren't we a bit old for toys Higurashi-san?" the sneer that accompanied the verbal snub was enough to make her want to castrate him. But she refrained. Barely.

But that was what she was to him. A toy that he liked to amuse himself with, however, unlike a child confronted with a shiny object, he had never lost interest in tormenting her.

In high school she had obstinately told herself that all she had to do was last long enough and she'd never have to see him again.

Then he followed her to college and lived opposite her tiny apartment. He had purposely chased away any boyfriends she had brought back purely to make her life miserable— he had told her so on more than one occasion. Once again she had convinced herself that she would be free from him when college was done with.

But he had followed her into her job. He was Sesshoumaru Taisho for god sakes! Son of Touga Taisho, the world renowned photographer, with his trust fund alone Sesshoumaru probably had enough money to buy a small island off the Caribbean, live in a stately home and still have money to burn.

So why was he acting the salary man in her tiny little office life? Had she really been that bad in a past life?

To taunt her, he was doing it all to taunt her.

Lately she had been repeating the mantra 'it'll be quiet when I'm dead'. But with that goddamned sword of his she doubted death would be a reprieve. He was far too annoying for that.

He would find her in the afterlife, kill all of her fun and peace, and promptly drag her back, kicking and screaming, by her hair because he 'wasn't through taunting her yet'.

Jakotsu, her favourite colleague and all around best girl-friend, watched Sesshoumaru's ass as he stalked away and whistled appreciatively.

"Shush, Jak, he doesn't deserve your whistling." Kagome scolded as she ignored the gossiping throngs of people around her. They were either fawning over Sesshoumaru or being derogatory about her; she really didn't want to hear it.

Jak grinned lecherously at her from over his computer monitor. "Yeah, but that ass deserves a medal."

Kagome groaned and slapped a palm to her forehead.

Jak giggled. "Besides, I don't get what's gotten you so riled up; you look good in that picture."

"I will find something to throw at you too." she warned.

Jak, as she had learned through the years of working with him, was incorrigible once he found a topic he enjoyed. "Moreover, that demigod is practically stalking you!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "And therein lies my problem!" she pursed her lips and her blue eyes flickered around the bustling, cramped and stifling office full of worker ants.

"Honey, that's not a problem, that's a godsend."

She shook her head and turned back to her work. That was the problem with Jak; he was so convinced that Sesshoumaru was perfect she couldn't complain to him. But she knew two people who would listen... and help her plot her revenge.

Miroku and Sango jumped as the front door to the apartment was flung open with such force that it rebounded off the plaster of the wall behind it.

They looked at each other and rolled their eyes, "Sesshoumaru again" they chorused.

Kagome tore into the shared apartment and, eyes glowing with an irrational fury, beckoned them to guess the cause of her wild-haired rage.

"What did he do this time?" Sango enquired disparagingly.

Kagome flopped into an armchair opposite the happy couple and blew her hair from her eyes. "Do you remember that Truth and Dare game in college that progressed wildly out of hand, thanks to your perverted boyfriend there, and resulted in my partaking in raunchy photographs involving bikes?"

Sango choked on air and Miroku gazed off into the middle distance with a fond gleam in his eyes. "He got hold of those photos? How?"

"Inuyasha. That baka never could withstand Sesshoumaru's threats of decapitation." she grouched as she folded her arms and slumped in her seat.

"Can you blame him?" Miroku asked "Sesshoumaru has impaled our potty-mouthed friend so many times I would say he has mistaken him for a pin cushion."

"Yeah but that's only impaling, not decapitation." Kagome was obstinate.

Sango rolled her eyes "Yes, only impaling."

Kagome gave her a withering look and Sango stuck her tongue out.

Miroku pulled his laptop across the table and quickly went to Sesshoumaru's webpage. Kagome sat there – damning social networking sites – in stony silence until he found the correct photograph.

The pervert let out a low whistle that got him elbowed in the ribs by his girl friend. Kagome glowered at Sango as Sango attempted to keep a straight face. Precisely ten seconds later her facial muscles buckled under the strain of keeping a stoic mask and she crumpled into uncontrollable giggles.

Kagome, red cheeked and livid, waited none too patiently for her so called friend to recover from her fit.

Sango wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. "Good times, Kagome, good times."

Kagome growled at her and Miroku snorted.

"It's okay, Kagome. Everyone did stupid things in college." Miroku shrugged "Like the tattoo I got."

Sango sniggered "Yeah; that was fun. Whoever would have thought you would pledge your love to me by getting my name tattooed on your bottom?"

"What about the time you went streaking in the snow and got locked out?" Miroku countered.

Sango slapped him. "I didn't go streaking; you stole my clothes and locked me outside!"

Kagome sighed and brought the attention back to her problem before they lynched each other. "The problem isn't the stupid photograph. It's the fact that he keeps uncovering all these secrets about me!"

Sango and Miroku watched worriedly as their friend seemed to deflate in her seat. "Sometimes there just aren't enough obstacles to stop Sesshoumaru." she laughed humourlessly. "What if he discovers my secrets are best left hidden?"


	3. Secret Valentine's

Title: Secrets Valentine's  
Author: aimee_blue  
Rating: T  
Prompt: Stern (Drabble #74)  
Genre: Humour, Romance  
Word Count: 300  
Warnings: none  
Summary: Continues from my 'Obstacle' oneshot: Secrets Left Hidden. Kagome delights in Sesshoumaru's annoyance, it serves him right anyway.

Were they still teenagers?

Kagome would be the first to admit that the women in her office were gossiping, conniving and, two-faced as they vied for Sesshoumaru. He was never free of his orbiting cloud of fawning women who would probably walk over hot coals just to have him look at them.

Hell, they'd probably self-combust if he ever deigned to talk to them.

But this was purely ridiculous.

It was Valentine's Day... the day Kagome ignored pointedly each and every year.

But even she had to admit that it was indeed February 14th. And they had all gone crazy.

When she said 'they' she was including Jakotsu, he had turned as crazy as the women, but he was more vicious about it.

They were actually attempting to give Sesshoumaru chocolates. Regardless of the fact that he was a dog-demon and therefore allergic to chocolates of any kind.

But, as Jakotsu had told her, that didn't matter, what mattered was getting the 'Lord's' attention. Kagome's protests fell on deaf ears.

Though farcical, it was hilarious to watch and Kagome pegged it as her new favourite spectator sport. She observed hapless females and Jakotsu quickly situating their chocolates on his desk before he came into his office that morning.

They would deposit the previous chocolates in the bin. Kagome had taken to salvaging them and eating them gleefully.

When Sesshoumaru eventually dragged himself into the office he paused at the sight of the gaudily wrapped parcel on the desk, a sniff identified it as chocolate.

Growling, he hefted the parcel and tossed it into the bin.

At Kagome's stern tone he turned. "Now, now Sesshoumaru, they spent a lot of effort on those!"

"Then why have you eaten them all?"

His stern tone was infinitely more impressive, but Kagome merely giggled.


	4. Secret Senses

Title: Secret Senses  
Author: aimee_blue  
Rating: T  
Prompt: Purse (Drabble #75)  
Genre: Humour, Romance  
Word Count: 200  
Warnings:none  
Summary:Continues from my 'Stern' drabble: Secret Valentine's. Kagome makes her way to her other job after witnessing Sesshoumaru's Valentine's Day from hell and gets a little surprise along the way.

After Sesshoumaru's Valentine's chocolate fiasco, Kagome had gone to her favourite Chinese place straight after work, preferring to while away the hours in the company of good food and the delirious hostess Wing-Yee instead of sitting at home moping in front of the TV watching a hapless Valentine's Day movie that was, doubtlessly, playing.

But as she left on her way to her other, less respectable, job that funded her not-so-little secret, she realised quite how late it was. Her appointment with Hinako wasn't until eleven because Hinako was a flighty woman who rarely scheduled anything until the last moment. At least she only had two appointments to deal with.

Turning into the alley that led her to her office building she shuddered as a sense of forbidding washed over her, she was struck with the images of a purse, a knife and blood.

Ah, she was going to get mugged. Predictable.

Clocking her would-be assailant waiting at the end of the alley, she made a sharp turn out onto the bustling main street, it meant she had to walk an extra couple of streets but it also meant she was safe. Unfazed, she prepared to meet Hinako's boundless enthusiasm.


	5. Secret Professions

Title: Secret Professions

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Rainbow (One Shot #38)

Genre: Humour, Romance

Word Count: 979

Warnings: none

Summary: Continues from my 'Purse' drabble: Secret Senses. Kagome is confused by her future.

Kagome grinned wryly as Hinako, dressed in a compilation of rainbow colours, twirled into the small room to plop herself into the chair opposite Kagome.

She had pink hair, chicly cut into an elfin crop that came to her chin, a red coat that belted around her waist, a long royal blue pencil skirt and a purple scooped neck shirt with bright yellow stilettos strapped her feet.

Her lime green beret fell into her soft brown eyes and she pushed it back to look critically at Kagome's attire.

"Yes?" Kagome grinned as she waited for the inevitable comments about how she was dressed. Hinako never could deal with how conservative Kagome's wardrobe was.

She was wearing a simple black A-line skirt with sheer black tights and dark purple stilettos. Her blouse was also a dark purple and the sleeves stopped at her elbows. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her outfit; she wasn't the one wearing a lime green beret.

"Maybe a shiny shawl, some hooped earrings?" Hinako suggested as she wrinkled her nose. "A crystal ball maybe? Props make the part Kagome-chan!"

"I'm not a gypsy Hinako-chan, and I'm not even sure gypsies dress like that." Kagome giggled slightly "I'm just a really crappy fortune teller."

"Not crappy!" Hinako denied adamantly "You knew that Yusuke was going to cheat on me before he did!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. She had met Hinako a while back and absentmindedly told her to watch out for the car when they were in the cafe – Hinako had thought her crazy and left in confusion. A few minutes later Hinako had walked out into the street and almost gotten herself run over.

Kagome had always been able to do things like that. But nothing was ever concrete; she didn't get premonitions or dreams. She just got random feelings every now and then. And so, with the crappy amount her job paid, she had decided to become a fortune teller.

Hinako had been the catalyst in that decision. Convincing her that she should just give it a shot and that she would worry about rounding the people up.

Kagome hadn't expected her sideline to be so lucrative, but now she had enough money to look after her secrets all on her own, not to mention pay for her Grandfather's medical care and repairs on the shrine.

Every two days she was visited by hordes of people, but nowadays most were politicians, actors, journalists, doctors; people with money that were happy to come for her in exchange for their privacy. Something she would gladly give them, she wanted confidentiality just as much as they did.

She could only imagine what Sesshoumaru would do with the information and it terrified her.

"Stroke of luck." Kagome replied, folding her arms stubbornly.

Hinako chuckled slightly, Kagome was brilliant, really she was, but she could be frustrating when she didn't believe in her own gift.

"And the near-fatal car accident?"

"Random coincidence" Kagome declared.

"My apartment flooding?"

Kagome pouted and shrugged "I don't know." She decided that telling Hinako about her almost mugging wasn't going to aid her denial.

"Ha!" Hinako was triumphant. "Now admit you can predict the future."

"You are going to lose your beret very soon." Kagome promised in an ominous tone.

Hinako's expression shifted to bewildered for a moment before Kagome swiftly lunged over the table and filched the beret from her head.

"Hey!"

"Pretty" Kagome commented as she ran her thumb across the soft material.

"What is it?" Hinako asked eagerly, Kagome had that slightly distant expression on her face that appeared every time she had a 'feeling'.

"Something to do with a cow and a dog." Kagome murmured in her perplexing way.

Hinako nodded thoughtfully, she had been around Kagome long enough to ignore the abstract quality of the prediction. "I'll be on the lookout then." she grinned.

Kagome glanced at her phone as a text message made itself known via a vibrating that nearly landed the phone on the floor. Flipping the contraption open she frowned at the message. Looked like she'd have to go and visit them before she went home that day.

"Who is it?" Hinako asked

Kagome smiled the soft smile of her secret and Hinako nodded wisely.

"Are they okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna have to check up on them before I go home tonight."

"Do you have another appointment?" Hinako changed the subject.

Kagome glanced down at her schedule and frowned. "That politician, Naraku."

"Oooh!" Hinako enthused "he's all manners of hot."

"Yeah and creepy too." Kagome reminded her.

Hinako shrugged. "But hot overrules creepy."

"Now you sound like Jakotsu with his flippant attitude to Sesshoumaru's taunting, just because he's kinda beautiful." Kagome raised a brow.

Hinako waggled her brows. "He's even better than Naraku!" she licked her lips suggestively.

Kagome sighed "There's no helping you."

Hinako laughed and tossed her bubblegum-pink hair out of her eyes. "You only just figured that out?"

"And so predictable" Kagome jibbed.

Hinako grinned impishly. "And you said you weren't a fortune teller."

Kagome smiled indulgently as Hinako bid her farewell and closed her eyes as the small tug against her sense alerted her to a new 'premonition'.

"Silver, gold, red, magenta, eggshell blue." she frowned at the strange list of words that had spewed from her mouth. It had been the same for the past year, every time she had tried to get some sort of feeling about her future she would see those particular colours.

"My rainbow of confusion." she remarked to the empty room. "Ah, first sign of madness talking to yourself, but then, I can see the future." she concluded.

Naraku poked his head around her office door "Higurashi-san? Are you talking to yourself?"

"Um... no, please come in and sit down."

Discarding hopeless _feelings_, she once again tried to get back to her job.


	6. Secret Thief

Title: Secret Thief

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Red (Drabble #76)

Genre: Humour, Romance

Word Count: 100

Warnings: Nakedness but nothing suggestive

Summary: Continues from my 'Rainbow' oneshot: Secret Professions. Kagome regrets agreeing to go to the gym with Sango after she gets a secret visitor.

Kagome sighed as the steam of the shower blushed her cheeks red. Her reluctance when Sango had first suggested attending her weekly kickboxing class, due to her precognition that danger was afoot, had been alleviated by her exertion-induced rejuvenation.

Maybe her wires were crossed.

She sensed the presence in the gym showers and glanced over her shoulder. She couldn't see anyone ... but she couldn't see her towel either.

Exiting the shower she looked around for her clothes and growled; the towel thief had pilfered them too.

A note had been left, the scrawling handwriting was his; Sesshoumaru's.

'Lost something Kagome?'

A/N: This won me second place *blush* I was so childishly proud! Thanks for reading and congratulations to you guys who figured out Kagome's future!


	7. Secret Gender

Title: Secret Gender

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Glomp (drabble#77)

Genre: Humour/ Romance

Wordcount: 300

Warnings: Cross-dressing (in case anyone finds this offensive)

Summary: Continues from my 'Red' drabble, Kagome is confronted with an old friend who knows her secret.

Kagome was irritated, even with Sesshoumaru's blessed absence. Jakotsu was being severely distracting, mock-swooning in the direction of their new manager's office.

She followed his line of sight in time to watch the woman stroke Sesshoumaru's striped cheek and frowned; for some reason she recognised that sleek plait.

"Why are you so happy?" Kagome, still in an appalling mood, asked Jakotsu "I thought you were in lust with White-haired Wonder."

"I am." he sighed again as Sesshoumaru fought off a glomp from the woman.

"So what's with the lovesick sighing?" Kagome asked, scrunching up her eyebrows in confusion.

"I love them both!" he declared joyously. "And yes, I am gay." he smirked deviously "Our new manager is a guy!"

Kagome leaned to take a good long look at their new manager. Skirt? Check. High heels? Check. Slim shoulders? Check.

He certainly looked like a woman.

"That's a guy?" Kagome muttered "Pretty convincing."

Jakotsu gave a low whistle and Kagome turned in time to see Sesshoumaru dart from the room pursued by his latest admirer; their boss.

Recognition hit her like a ton of bricks as she assigned a name to the face. That was Bankotsu Ito; he came to her to have his fortune read every Tuesday.

He passed her desk at a skip, trying to catch his escaping prey but paused to look at her.

"Kagome?" he asked in surprise.

"Hi" she muttered. Sesshoumaru glared at the two of them. Bankotsu exposing her secret would be dire.

"You have a real job too?" he asked, laughing a very feminine laugh.

She mimed the cut-throat and Bankotsu, always quick off to catch on, shut up quickly. Sesshoumaru strained at his figurative leash; he could almost smell the secret Bankotsu held over Kagome.

"Don't worry! I won't tell the bad puppy!"


	8. Secret Hideout

Title: Secret Hideout

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Crazy (drabble#78)

Genre: Humour/ Romance

Wordcount: 400

Warnings: Mildly suggestive themes

Summary: Continues from my 'glomp' drabble Secret Gender. Sesshoumaru needs a place to hide, Kagome doesn't like his hiding place. This won second place! Woot!

She now had a shadow; its name was Sesshoumaru. He'd been incorrigible since Bankotsu had almost let slip her secret.

Looming over her desk when she was trying to work, popping up when she was grocery shopping and following her to the bathroom every time she went.

He was driving her crazy.

Glancing up at him serrupticiously from over her latest manuscript she caught him staring a hole through her head. He seemed to think that if he stared at her for long enough her secrets would spill out of her ears.

But the old saying was true; every cloud had a silver lining. At least Sesshoumaru was suffering Bankotsu's attentions. Sure the cross-dressing male had almost allowed her secret to slip but he more than made up for it with his split personality.

Sesshoumaru was subjected to Bankotsu's fawning and then, when Sesshoumaru rejected him brutally, he became the office dictator making Sesshoumaru do the most heinous jobs.

She started as Sesshoumaru appeared behind her desk; knelt down so that, if she uncrossed her legs, he'd be able to see straight up her skirt.

"Hentai!" she yelped, attempting to slap him stupid.

He caught her wrist easily and treated her to a disdainful stare. "I do not care for your body."

"Yeah, sure."

He growled lowly at her but continued to lurk.

"Why are you here?" Kagome asked in exasperation.

"Bankotsu is looking for me."

"You're hiding." her blunt statement earned her a glare.

"I do not hide."

"What do you call this?" she asked wryly.

"Kagome?" Bankotsu's heels tapped across the floor "Where is Sesshoumaru-san?"

Her legs uncrossed and in her agitation at her conundrum, she began to tap her foot against the floor; she wasn't sure what Sesshoumaru would do if she snitched.

She opened her mouth to answer but said nothing at the whisper of hair across her thigh. What was he doing?

Her thighs were prised apart slowly and she felt his lips drop a kiss to the inside of her left one.

Bankotsu blinked in shock as Kagome launched herself out of the chair and fell onto the floor. Sesshoumaru appeared, smirking mischievously at her.

"Why?" she demanded, eyes wide and disbelieving.

"I felt like it"

He ducked as a stiletto sailed past his head, red faced, Kagome stole past him "And I felt like that, jerk!"

"You deserved that." Bankotsu chipped in.

"Hn."


	9. Secret Intentions

Title: Secret Intentions

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Second Thoughts (oneshot#39)

Genre: Humour/Romance

Wordcount: 1,076

Warnings: None

Summary: Continues from my crazy drabble Secret Hideout. Kagome's icy indifference entices an adverse reaction from Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru frowned at Kagome slyly over the top of the latest in a long line of manuscripts. It had never been his ideal job; working as a reader in a publishing house, but the opportunity it presented to taunt his favourite toy was simply too tempting to withstand.

He was still ridiculously rich, even if he wasn't earning much money. His mother had left him everything in her will; to spite his father no doubt. And it sat in one of his many bank accounts gathering bewildering amounts of interest and making him more money. If that wasn't enough, he still had his trust fund from his father and the money he made from the several businesses he owned.

He was content to work in a publishing house, as a reader, if only to torment one Kagome Higurashi. Even Bankotsu's new, profoundly annoying, presence couldn't deter him from tormenting her.

Ever since he had met her, aged seven in the park, he had delighted in tormenting the small human. Her reactions were simply uproarious and her angry glare was riotous. She was around as fierce as a guinea pig.

But her anger and frustration were pleasing to him. He took pleasure in the way her eyes would blaze with blue fire, her hands clench into fists at her side and her chest would heave as she drew in shaky rage-filled breaths.

He loved how her normally childlike innocence morphed into a beautiful rage.

She was fascinating.

But right now she was actually quite forbidding. She was reading manuscripts with a brutal ferocity that was actually quite intimidating. She hadn't been playing the game as well as usual since the incident with him kissing her leg and he had been bitterly disappointed.

Sure, she'd thrown her stiletto at him but after that there was nothing more from her. She had simply been treating him to frosty stares that were frankly eerie, and he was Sesshoumaru; lord of icy glares.

He was having second thoughts about his little stunt – maybe she had an aversion to having her thighs kissed? Her indifference towards him was annoying and he had no idea how to get her angry at him again.

He had even secured the revealing motorbike picture to her computer monitor before she had gotten into the office, but she had merely put it in the recycling bin and carried on with her life.

It was irritating.

Crumpling the first page of the crappy manuscript he crushed it into a ball and threw it at her. It was an accurate shot, though it traversed the entire five metre length of the room, and it glanced off her head before knocking over her stack of papers and rolling off the desk into her wastepaper basket.

She tensed, reordered her papers, and tossed her hair without once looking at him.

He growled. It was no fun if she didn't play along!

Standing abruptly; his chair slid away and hit into the wall behind him. He knew she could tell he was moving but she made no movement other than to tense in anticipation.

Stalking over to her he stopped to lean over her desk and stare down at her.

She tried to ignore him for at least a full minute before she snapped and looked up at him, anger clouding her blue eyes.

"Can I help you Sesshoumaru-san?" she asked in a pointedly polite tone.

Through the window into their manager's office Kagome could just about make out Bankotsu in her peripheral vision. He was watching them with a smirk curving his painted mouth; like they were some kind of bad day-time television show designed purely for his entertainment.

"I was just wondering, Kagome-chan, my brother has a bit of a penchant for motorbikes and, seeing those revealing photos of you," he deliberately flaunted a photograph of her lying reclined across the motorbike. Internally, Kagome growled; how many copies of the godforsaken thing did he have? "I was wondering whether you had a recommendation for a bike I might purchase for him." His voice was sugary sweet and the office was near silent as everyone tried to listen in on their conversation.

Deliberately slowly Kagome twisted her smooth black hair into an elegant twist on the back of her head and secured it with some hair pins. She glanced at him and shrugged. "I was under the impression you and Inuyasha didn't really get along, after all, he did dye your hair green in high school."

A snigger ran through the office and Sesshoumaru frowned at her.

"We've put our past differences behind us." He spoke slowly, determined not to lose.

"I see, strange how Inuyasha told me, just last night, that you are refusing to go to his wedding because, and I quote, 'it is not worth the time and effort'." Kagome frowned and tapped a pen on her chin. "It didn't really sound like you had moved on, Sesshoumaru-san."

He smiled sadistically. "If you wanted me to attend the wedding, all you had to do was ask Kagome-chan." He leaned over the table to whisper in her ear "Now I'll be there and I can guarantee I will make it as unpleasant for you as it could possibly be. I do hope you're not bringing a date."

She gulped; Hojo was going to melt under the oppressive presence of Sesshoumaru. At this rate she was going to end up dying a virgin!

"I guess I'll see you there then." She bit out, glowering at the latest manuscript in her never decreasing pile.

"I look forward to it." He smirked and departed.

She allowed her head to drop forward as she head butted the surface of her desk. "Great"

"You'll be fine" Bankotsu reassured her.

She raised an eyebrow at the man who had appeared from nowhere. "How'd you figure that?"

"He's just a puppy. His bark is worse than his bite."

She rolled her eyes "You haven't had to live with him torturing you for most of your life."

He smirked and dropped another seventeen manuscripts on the table "Deal with it." he instructed in his frostiest voice.

"His personality changes so fast I'm getting whiplash." She informed Jakotsu with a shake of her head.

"I still love him." Jakotsu sighed dreamily.

"You're crazy." she told him.

"Yeah, but you're the one who invited Sesshoumaru to a wedding." he snorted "You're the crazy one."

She couldn't have agreed more.


	10. Secret Surveillance

Title: Secret Surveillance

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: Neck (drabble#79)

Genre: Humour/ Romance

Wordcount: 100

Warnings: None

Summary: Kagome is dragged dress shopping for Kikyo's wedding, with some disastrous consequences. Continues from my second thoughts oneshot 'Secret Intentions'.

He knew he was sticking his neck on the line by doing this; she'd probably blow a fuse if she caught him, but the temptation was irresistible.

Her scent had struck him as he passed the bridal store; she was shopping for a bridesmaid's dress with Inuyasha's bride.

He gawked at her, stood on a raised podium; rendered immobile by a putrid yellow meringue-dress with Kikyo circling like a vulture.

Horror filled Kagome's eyes.

"I can't!"

"It's perfect!" Kikyo clapped.

Sesshoumaru chuckled, exposing his position.

He quickly shut the door to avoid the shoe flung his way.

"Jerk!" she squawked.


	11. Secret Agenda

Title: Secret Agenda  
Author: aimee_blue  
Rating: T  
Prompt: Interlude (oneshot#40)  
Genre: Humour/Romance  
Wordcount: 756  
Warnings: None  
Summary: Continues from my neck drabble Secret Surveillance. Kagome's worst nightmares all come to haunt her on the same day.

Kagome's eyes darted around the reception room like a caged animal seeking an escape route. In fact, she was not so much caged, more looking for the bearer of bad news. Hojo, hand on her arm, was obliviously twittering away about some other inestimably boring event in his life. But she was on the lookout for Sesshoumaru.

Since her most recent conversation with him just a few days ago she had been as jumpy as a spooked animal. The wedding had provided a brief interlude between his taunting and the reception but she had been tense all the way through; waiting for him to arrive.

Her Miko senses had been tingling constantly all through the wedding. But it gave her nothing specific, just the feeling of forbidding. Which really wasn't helping to calm her jittery nerves in the slightest. At least she had been able to change out of the yellow monstrosity of a dress Kikyo had forced her to wear, she really didn't want him to see her in it again.

But Sesshoumaru hadn't arrived. And she was beginning to hope he wouldn't appear. If he did arrive then he would probably melt Hojo or threaten him with words to that effect and she would be alone all night. And not for the first time.

"Kagome-san? Are you listening?" Hojo's soft, almost feminine, voice cut into her musings and she blinked and snapped out of it.

"I... yes I'm listening Hojo-san." she smiled her most cheerful smile, covering her shame-faced lie, and Hojo promptly blushed.

"Kagome-chan, I finally found you." A silky smooth voice purred into her ear.

Closing her eyes tightly she tried to deny the undeniable fact that Sesshoumaru was right behind her. She could feel the heat from his chest through the flimsy material of his dress he was standing so close to her.  
Biting her lip as the feeling of forbidding intensified she turned to face him and glowered at his satisfied, completely smug expression.

"Sesshoumaru-san." she acknowledged stiffly. He was dressed in an Armani suit that put her ugly-duckling-inspired dress to shame and draped across his arm was his only accessory; some model who was undoubtedly the finest catch in town at the moment.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your date?" he prompted snidely.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to yours?" she countered tapping her foot in agitation and sizing up the exits edgily.

He smirked. "This is Matsumoto Sora; she's an up and coming model," he placed a hand on her waif-like waist in a proprietary manner.

The beautiful, fawn-like girl nodded at her and smiled in her perfect way.

"This is Hojo ...." there was an awkward pause as she tried to remember his first name. "Chitose!" her small moment of triumph over remembering made a blush light up her cheeks, she covered her slip-up with a small cough and smiled sheepishly

Sesshoumaru quirked a brow at her and she resisted the urge to stick her tongue out or something equally as undignified.

The feeling of forbidding was intensifying in pressure and Kagome was decidedly unsettled.

"So, Hojo-san." Sesshoumaru smiled in a shark-like manner at the boy, "I do hope you are looking after our little Kagome-chan, she can get a tad neurotic at times."

Kagome's eyes narrowed at him. "Shut up, Sesshoumaru-san," she ordered.

He smiled vindictively, "When her last boyfriend broke up with her she stalked him for a while didn't you Kagome-chan?" he gave a fake chuckle "but that is in the past now, ne Kagome-chan?"

She wished she could wring his neck at the patronising way her name slipped through his lips

Hojo was looking increasingly worried and he was startled to find Kagome to find her rubbing her temples as if she had a headache.

She finally glanced up at Sesshoumaru. "Do what you like," she shrugged and left the reception room.  
Leaving a bemused Hojo, a passive Sora and a pondering Sesshoumaru in her wake.

The feeling of forbidding was building into dread and it actually hurt now. She made it outside the bustling reception room and into the yard outside the hotel. By now she had realised the feeling had nothing to do with Sesshoumaru and his taunting. Something much worse was about to happen.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and glared at it until it rang.

"Hello?" she asked the dread in her stomach building, twisting and knotting until it became a physical manifestation and she wanted to throw up.

"Kagome? Kagome, help me!"


	12. Secret Pastimes

Title: Secret Pastimes  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: crutch (drabble#80)  
Genre: humour  
Wordcount: 200  
Warnings: None  
Summary: Sesshoumaru has to face up to Inuyasha's accusations about Kagome. Continues from my 'Interlude' oneshot Secret Agenda.

Sesshoumaru glowered dispassionately at the female clinging possessively to his arm like he was her own personal crutch. The model was becoming tiresome.

His eyes attempted to bore though the door that Kagome had escaped through, his mind turning over in circles as he tried to fathom her sudden disappearance; normally she would take a lot more taunting before she snapped.

"Sesshoumaru? What's wrong? You were content," the woman's voice was sour "Who was that girl?"

Her words were irritating him to distraction; he wanted to sweep from the wedding reception.

Yet, before he could escape, he was cornered by his half-brother who was tapping one foot in annoyance.

"Hanyou."

Inuyasha nodded, "Asshole."

"What do you want?" Sesshoumaru asked in frustration; couldn't the Hanyou tell he wanted to leave?

"You know, saying 'Congratulations' wouldn't kill ya."

"I would not mean it."

"Bastard." Inuyasha chuckled darkly, "I was confused when Kagome said you were coming but I understand now, after all, you are stalking her."

Sesshoumaru tossed his hair in a gesture of aloofness. "I do not stalk women, women stalk me."

Inuyasha watched him walk away, an exasperated look in his eyes. "And denial is just a river in Egypt."


	13. Secret Playmates

Title: Secret Playmates  
Author: aimee_blue  
Rating: T  
Prompt: Beginner's Luck (Oneshott#41)  
Genre: Humour/Romance  
Wordcount: 1,270  
Warnings: None  
Summary: Continues from my 'Crutch' drabble Secret Pastimes. Sesshoumaru runs into Kagome and she begins to suspect it isn't a mere coincidence whilst Sesshoumaru makes a new friend.

Kagome barrelled into the hospital waiting room like the shinigami themselves were bearing down on her heels. Crashing into the reception desk, she pinned the poor nurse with a gimlet stare.

"Where are Rin and Mee Higurashi?" she growled menacingly.

"Um... who are you?" he asked in a tiny voice.

"I'm—" Kagome was cut off by a cry of relief before someone crashed into her side, nearly knocking her down onto the linoleum floor.

"Kagome!"

Kagome blinked down at Mee who, even though Kagome was only five foot two, was dwarfed by Kagome's frame. Mee was a tiny woman, bottle-sized, and completely bewilderingly hyperactive unless she was upset. And right now she was beyond upset.

"Mee? What happened?" she asked frantically.

She began to babble as if she couldn't help herself "Rin... it's Rin, she ran out into the road because of that nasty dog that lives opposite us growled at her, she got clipped by a passing car." her soft chocolate eyes wide and panicked, her usually light Cantonese accent rapidly becoming more pronounced in the face of her grief.

"Mee!" Kagome barked and Mee's body snapped to attention automatically "Is Rin okay?"

"Yes, the doctors... the doctors say..." and that was all they wrote for Mee as she swayed on the spot and fainted into Kagome.

Kagome caught her and groaned under the weight as she waited for the nurses to get themselves in gear and help her with the poor tired woman. At a guess Kagome could assume Mee hadn't eaten in a while nor had she probably had water in quite some time. Amaya was fragile at the best of times and now was certainly not the best of times.

Once they got Mee propped in a bed and confirmed she was simply exhausted, Kagome gently stroked Mee's short elfin crop from her eyes before she set off to find Rin.

The children's ward was gaudily wrapped and even more depressing than the corridors she had traversed to get there.

Turning a corner, she artfully dodged a small child in a wheelchair being pushed by a nurse, only to bounce off a hard chest and sprawl across the linoleum flooring on the rebound. She blew her hair out of her resolutely closed eyes and wondered if the world would mind if she just stayed there wallowing for a while.

"Are you going to just lie there?" Sesshoumaru's unmistakable voice intoned.

Cracking open one eye she peered up at the formidable shape of Sesshoumaru, he was blocking out the light and casting her into shadow with the way he stood over her. She was startled to notice he had a hand outstretched to help her up.

She eyed the hand distrustfully; those claws were awful sharp, and she wasn't sure he wouldn't drop her halfway up. He rolled his eyes and yanked her to her feet by her elbows before dusting the stunned woman of the invisible dust he seemed to believe she had accumulated.

She jerked out of reach and frowned at him suspiciously "Are you stalking me?"

"You sound hopeful," he mocked.

She glowered at him. "What are you doing here then?"

"I help fund this hospital," he frowned, "they are building a new wing and I came to look in on proceedings."

"You were at your brother's wedding reception, remember? Why'd you suddenly decide to just 'drop by'?" she was incredulous.

"When the sole reason for attending a party is gone, the party is over," he pointed out. Besides, his brother had been irking him with yet more accusations of stalking.

"And I'm the sole reason you went to your own brother's wedding reception?"

"Yes," he deadpanned.

She rolled her eyes. "You're possibly insane, you know that, right?"

He shrugged in a blasé fashion and she resisted the somewhat bizarre urge to muss up his perfect hair.

"Why are you here?" he queried.

She froze; she hadn't been looking forward to this inquiry.

"I'm... visiting a friend," she muttered tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

"Why do you seem so uncomfortable?" he asked astutely.

She frowned and bit her lip, shifting her weight from her left to her right foot in little jostling movements that tangled her hair. She looked like a child denied the right to go to the toilet and he smirked at her uneasiness.

"I'm not... it's just..."

"Kagome-Obasan?" a small voice called out and they twirled to glance through the doors of the next ward. Kagome's expression bloomed into a smile as she saw Rin laying on one of the hospital beds, her left leg ensconced in plaster from the knee down.

"Rin-chan!" Kagome exclaimed, hurrying over to her bedside and settling Rin back into the bed fussing over the blankets and pushing her chestnut locks from her trusting hazel eyes.

"Look Kagome-Obasan!" Rin enthused "It's pink!" she gestured at her cast in rapt seven-year-old delight.

"It is," Kagome agreed solemnly, forgetting about the Taiyokai lurking in the door way – she would deal with him later. "Are you okay?"

Rin nodded happily. "It hurt a lot but the doctor made it go away," she confessed.

"Here," Kagome fished around in her bag "I brought you this." She handed Rin her phone; the child was addicted to one of the games on it where the aim was to shoot down aliens.

The child took hold of the phone happily before gazing shrewdly around her aunt at the watching demon lord.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Rin asked, innocently enough.

Kagome choked on air and shook her head vehemently. "Of course not!" she gasped.

"Higurashi-san?" a nurse chose this moment to poke her head around the doorframe.

"Yes?" Kagome jumped to her feet, concern etched on her features.

"Higurashi Mee-san has woken up, if you'd come with me?"

Kagome frowned at Sesshoumaru for a moment "Rin-chan, please make sure he doesn't get into any trouble, kay?"

Rin giggled and Sesshoumaru smirked as she departed... until he realised he was now in a room with a human child. He'd never been this close to a human child before and found himself at a loss as to what he should do.

Rin, on the other hand, was completely unfazed. "Do you want a go?" she asked, a sincere lilt to her tone, holding the phone out to the Taiyokai stood statue-like at the foot of her bed.

Kagome sighed as she made her way back to the room Rin occupied, Mee was fine, just dozing again and she had been given the okay to take Rin home.

She stepped into the room and almost laughed in shock at the sight that greeted her.

Sesshoumaru was sat next to Rin on the bed, holding the phone and obviously concentrating; his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Rin was pointing at the screen of the device and, every now and then telling him to 'shoot' or 'go left'.

She appeared to be having fun, at least, and Kagome smiled at the feeling it gave her; these two would be good friends.

"No way!" Rin gasped as the phone chirped a small fanfare; announcing the game was over

"I beat you." Kagome rolled her eyes at the superior connotations to his tone. Was he really smug about beating a seven-year-old?

Rin frowned at him and wrinkled up her nose "Beginner's Luck!" she exclaimed.

He frowned at her. "Luck had nothing to do with it." he loftily proclaimed.

"Then I challenge you!" she declared.

A competitive light sparked in his eyes and he inclined his head, accepting her challenge. "Very well."


	14. Secret Santa

Title: Secret Santa

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Blue (drabble#81)

Wordcount: 300

Warnings: None

Summary: Continues from my 'Beginners Luck' oneshot. Sesshoumaru employs honey in his trap... the vinegar wasn't working so well.

Kagome squeaked as the three piles of neatly ordered manuscripts tumbled off her desk and merged into a mess on the floor.

Lately, her luck had been getting worse.

This morning she had slept through her alarm and woken up with a bird's nest where her hair should have been, she'd managed to miss her train and then laddered her tights mysteriously and the elevators had broken down. Her floor was the twentieth.

A shadow fell across her as she knelt to pickup her manuscripts and she knew, without looking up, that her bad day was about to get worse.

Tossing her hair out of her eyes, she glanced at the striking Sesshoumaru who appeared to be enjoying standing over her whilst she kneeled. The subservience of her position irked her and she quickly rose to her feet and dumped the manuscripts on her desk.

"What?" she snapped irritably.

He quirked a brow. "Is that any way to greet a co-worker?" he asked sardonically.

"I'm not in the mood to play games just now Sesshoumaru."

"Too bad, if I am."

She choked back the desire to rip her hair out in agitation. He knew exactly how to coax her into a rage and she detested giving him the satisfaction.

"Here." He handed her a baby blue mobile phone that was identical to hers except for the colour.

"I have a phone." She was bemused.

"But Rin doesn't, it has her game on it."

With that, he stalked away; content to leave her gawking like a fool. She wanted to protest, to say it was too much, but she knew he wouldn't listen.

But her conscience was not what kept her rooted to the spot, no; she stayed still because, with that gesture, he had melted her heart somewhat.

Damn him.


	15. Secret Hentai

Title: Secret Hentai

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: flute (drabble#82)

Genre: Comedy

Wordcount: 300

Warnings: a little harmless groping.

Summary: Continues from my 'Blue' drabble Secret Santa. **Miroku rubs off on Sesshoumaru much to Kagome's dismay.**

Plastering a smile on her face, Kagome gripped her champagne flute a little tighter than was strictly necessary as Jakotsu proposed a toast to their manager. It was Bankotsu's birthday and he had gathered his friends into a small bar after work in order to celebrate.

Kagome had attended purely because the alcohol was sure to be good – Bankotsu had a taste for fine wine – and because Sango and Miroku said that they would be in attendance.

Bouncing happily over to Kagome in his new red boots Bankotsu hugged her with such gusto she nearly fell over. When she had regained her balance she closed her eyes and whispered to him, "Do you see a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes?"

Bankotsu immediately spotted the man lounging on the edge of the bar, looking lonely and yummy. Bankotsu's perfect combination. "Yep."

Kagome giggled. "He likes your boots."

Bankotsu practically purred as he sauntered away after his latest plaything.

Silently appearing alongside Kagome, Sesshoumaru dipped his head to kiss her on the cheek, grinning evilly when she squeaked and jumped away.

"Sesshoumaru!" she yelped, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"It is a party Kagome, I was invited." He crooked an eyebrow.

They jumped as Sango – recovering from being groped by her Hentai fiancé – smacked Miroku so hard upside the head he passed out happily on the floor.

"Hentai." Kagome quipped.

Sesshoumaru smirked lecherously. "I can see the appeal," he muttered as he admired Kagome in the tight black dress she was wearing. His smirk grew as a slightly perverted plan formed in his twisted mind.

A clawed hand found a certain pert roundness and a certain outraged Miko flushed instantly.

Seconds later, Sesshoumaru found himself wearing her champagne as she pinged the flute off of his forehead.

"Hentai!"


	16. Secret Messages

Title: Secret Messages

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Bury (drabble#83)

Genre: Humour/ Romance

Rating: T

Warnings: none

Word count: 400

Summary: Continues from my 'flute' drabble, Secret Hentai. Sesshoumaru and Kagome stay late one night and end up entangled.

Folding his jacket over one arm, Sesshoumaru prepared to return home. Stopping at the door, the Inu turned slowly to look at the room one last time; he was certain he had just heard a groan. His ears did not lie.

Seeking out the sound of the mumbling, he came across Kagome's desk, piled high with collapsed towers of papers, and frowned when he realised it was vacant.

Deciding to delve further into the mess that was Kagome's desk, he picked up a manuscript and nearly fell over backwards. She was underneath the pile!

Slumped over the desk, clearly asleep, a pen stuck to one rosy cheek and her hair uncoiling from its bun, she looked completely adorable.

Adorable? He almost shuddered but promptly eviscerated the word from his vocabulary.

"Kagome?" he called, almost tenderly. Though he would never admit himself capable of those emotions.

A soft grumble escaped her lips and she buried into the pile of manuscripts, escaping from the voice that wanted her awake.

His golden eyes softened slightly as she curled up like a cat, her long limbs coiling into her chair, bringing her feet off the floor and tucking them under her perch on the chair.

A loud buzzing sound snapped him from his observation and he snatched her phone from the desk before it vibrated off of the table.

Flipping the phone open he opened her new message and, unrepentant about snooping, he hastily scanned through her inbox and growled.

Apparently, she saw fit to moan about him via texts to her friends all day.

Ice Prince?

Arrogant bastard?

Apparently he was an annoyingly antagonistic asshole too.

Hn. She was an impertinent woman indeed.

"Kagome!" he yelled.

Squawking in a rather unladylike manner, she shot out of her seat and blinked sleepily at him.

"Huh?"

"Your nicknames for me leave something to be desired."

Flushing slightly, she reached to take the phone from him, only to find he had lifted it above his head; out of her reach.

"That's just childish!" she pouted, planting her hands firmly on her hips.

"Hn."

"Don't you 'hn' me!" she exclaimed, leaping erratically for the phone. He dodged agilely but was not expecting her legs to tangle with his own. Depositing them in a heap on the floor.

"Ow."

"This is entirely your fault," Sesshoumaru intoned dryly from beneath the fallen Kagome.

"You are impossible," she lamented exasperatedly.


	17. Secret Rendezvous

Title: Secret Rendezvous  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: horror (oneshot#41)  
Genre: Humour/ Romance  
Rating: T  
Warning: None  
Word count: 1,038  
Summary: Continues from my 'bury' drabble Secret Messages. Sesshoumaru is delighted when Kagome initiates contact, only to discover that someone else was lending a helping hand...

When Kagome had texted and told him to meet her for dinner he had been smug, thinking she'd fallen to his charms like every other woman inevitably did. He had been smug enough to believe that his charms had finally gotten to her.

But he had obviously been mistaken.

With horror stricken eyes the Daiyokai surveyed the mayhem before him. He'd seen battlefields and blood, he'd ripped out his brother's intestines on more than one occasion and he'd sown his own skin back together numerous times. But nothing he'd ever done compared to this.

It was a children's indoor play-area. Tackily decorated in bright colours that fried his retinas, gaudily draped in cartoon characters that leered at him, and it was suffused with climbing frames coated with special plastic so that the children couldn't hurt themselves.

The children themselves were positively terrifying, the ear piercing cacophony of noise, the stampeding of their feet as they chased each other around in circles; it was unnerving.

One collided into his leg quite violently but barely spared him a glance before jumping to its feet and running off again. It seemed they were made of rubber.

Proceeding past the play-area part of the 'restaurant', he came upon a tightly packed cluster of tables filled with parents and their fractious offspring. All the parents seemed bedraggled and the children were positively twitchy.

He didn't dare to attempt to sniff Kagome out, his poor nose had already been assaulted by the scent of this god-awful place and, subsequently, he had stopped breathing through his nose.

Golden eyes met blue and he hurried to the table where he could see Kagome. Rin was sat there too, her tongue poking out of her lips in concentration as she battled on the game on the phone he had bought for her.

He sat down and leant on the table, regretting it instantly when his elbow encountered an unnamed sticky substance on the table.

"Why have you brought me to this place?" he demanded.

Kagome blinked at him. "It's Rin's favourite place and I didn't bring you here, why are you here?"

"You text messaged me," he sneered, showing her the message on his phone.

"I don't even know your telephone number!" she protested and then her eyes narrowed in sudden realisation.

Peering at the two adults over the phone, Rin gulped as Kagome's shrewd stare met her own timid one.

"Rin."

"I'm sorry!" Rin apologised instantly, biting her lip uncomfortably and scratching her leg just above the pink plaster cast, "I just thought you'd have fun!"

"You called me here?" Sesshoumaru asked the small girl.

She nodded and smiled broadly, revealing the gap between her two front teeth.

"Why?" he enquired, his voice was softer than normal, and he knew it but he found himself unable to conjure his customary aloofness with this child.

"Because Kagome-Obasan is happier when you're around, she yells a lot more too, but she's happier."

Kagome closed her eyes at this little revelation. She loved Rin; really she did, but sometimes...

"Really, Kagome?" Sesshoumaru purred, glee evident in his tone.

Glowering at his arrogance she replied, "No."

"Obstinate aren't we?"

"Bite me."

"A tempting proposal, Kagome."

"I hate you!"

Rin blinked as she turned her head back and forth to look at them in turn as they engaged in a bout of verbal tennis. Even though they seemed exasperated and annoyed she could tell they were both happy. Their eyes were alight and she smiled.

Sesshoumaru turned to the smiling child and picked her up suddenly, perching her on his hip whilst she squealed with happiness. He was very careful of her broken leg, making Kagome smile slightly.

Turning to Kagome, he said, "Let's leave, I am developing a migraine."

She scrambled after the departing Taiyokai, hastily picking up Rin's crutches and her bag.

Long legs had already carried them halfway down the street and she had to jog to catch up with them.

"Where are we going?" she yelled.

"You'll see," was Sesshoumaru's cryptic remark.

On the outskirts of the city, Sesshoumaru stopped so quickly she'd nearly ran into his back.

"What are we doing?" Kagome asked.

They had been silent for the entire trip, Kagome cursing Sesshoumaru and Sesshoumaru listening to Rin's tales of her school and her mother and aunt.

"Come here." Sesshoumaru held a hand out to Kagome who glared hard at him.

"Why?"

Such an ornery woman. "Can't you just do as I say?"

"I do not follow orders mindlessly!"

"But you seem to argue mindlessly," he sighed, "Kagome, just come here."

Glowering even in her acquiescence, she shifted the crutches to under one arm and slipped her smaller hand into his clawed one.

The deadly smirk that grace his features then made her reconsider the action but before she could move to extricate herself from his grasp it was too late.

She was floating.

Floating on a fluffy cloud.

Sesshoumaru's fluffy cloud.

"Wow!" Rin gaped as they left the houses and building behind and came to float leisurely above everything.

"Kagome, you can put the crutches down, the cloud will support them," Sesshoumaru instructed.

Kagome dropped the crutches, but not because he had ordered her to, she dropped the crutches so she could hold onto Sesshoumaru's arm with bone bending pressure.

Sesshoumaru almost winced at the pressure the tiny female was exerting on his poor defenceless bones.

"Kagome, are you frightened?"

"No," she replied petulantly as she buried her face into his shoulder.

Sighing belligerently he wrapped the arm she was clinging onto around her waist and pressed her into his side securely. "Look, Kagome."

Tentatively opening her eyes she gasped as she saw what Rin and Sesshoumaru had been observing.

The sun was just dipping below the horizon and it had cast the sky with vibrant shades of orange, gold and fuchsia.

Wind swirled around them caressing them and lifting Sesshoumaru's glorious hair into a whirling dance above them. Rin giggled as the tendrils tickled her and Kagome relaxed into his side as the strands seemed to stroke her cheeks reassuringly.

"It's beautiful," Kagome whispered, talking nay louder seemed wrong in this moment of perfect tranquillity.

Sesshoumaru looked down at her."Yes, beautiful."


	18. Secret Vantage Point

Title: Secret Vantage Point

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Billow [drabble#84]

Rating: T

Word count: 200

Genre: Humour

Warnings: None.

Summary: continues from my horror drabble Secret Rendezvous. Just who is stalking who in this scenario? Kagome laments her entanglement...

"See those curtains on that balcony?" Jakotsu asked, jabbing his chopsticks in the direction of a glamorous apartment building across the street from their favourite coffee shop.

Bored blue eyes fixed on the billowing curtains of the apartment building three streets away.

"Yeah?"

Jakotsu cast a conspiratorial glance around. "That's where Sesshoumaru-sama lives," Jakotsu confided.

Kagome raised her mug of coffee to her lips and regarded her friend over the rim. "Tell me something, Jak, are you a stalker?"

He sniffed, affronted at her accusation, and bit into his shrimp viciously.

"I'm pretty sure he's stalking me too," Kagome cajoled.

Jakotsu's eyes widened and he choked on his shrimp.

It was at that moment that her senses deigned to alert her to the formidable presence behind her.

Slowly, she turned to grin at the very being she'd been gossiping about. "Sesshoumaru-san, hi!"

He regarded her with impassive golden eyes.

"You appear to be the one stalking me; you are the one staking out my apartment from a perfect vantage point."

He had a gift for being infuriating.

"Leaving your balcony door open like that is an invitation to get robbed!" she countered.

"I live on the fourteenth floor," he deadpanned.


	19. Secret Slip

Title: Secret Slip

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Flat [drabble#85]

Genre: Humour

Rating: T

Words: 100

Warnings: None

Summary: Kagome's knight in shining armour accuses her of stalking... Continued from my 'billow' drabble Secret Vantage Point.

Like an old slapstick movie, Kagome's arms spiralled wildly as she slid on the freshly polished floor in the lobby of her office building.

She was saved from falling flat on her back by the hands that encircled her wrists and caught her.

Blinking up into the eyes of her impromptu saviour, she balked anxiously.

"Hn," Sesshoumaru plonked her back onto her feet in the patronising manner of a parent with a toddler. "I am possibly the only person gracious enough to assist their stalker."

With that, he flounced away, leaving Kagome to yell after him, "You're a stalker too!"


	20. Secret Frustrations

Title: Secret Frustrations.

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Lick [drabble#86]

Rating: T

Warnings: Sexual frustration.

Words: 300

Genre: romance/humour

Summary: Kagome tried to fight off a blind date but ends up being preyed upon by Sesshoumaru. Continues from my 'flat' drabble Secret Slip.

"No," Kagome's rejection was resolute and she accompanied it with a little disdainful flick of her hair as she attempted to resume her work.

"Come on Kagome!" Jakotsu whined plaintively as he spun on his swivel chair, blithely ignoring his own pile of work in favour of attempting to match-make.

"No," she repeated flicking him a terse glance.

"But he's a really nice guy Kagome!"

"He's related to you," Kagome teased good-naturedly.

Huffing slightly Jakotsu folded his arms. "Have I ever let you down before?"

"Hojo."

Wincing good-naturedly Jakotsu flapped his hands dismissively.

"I refuse to go on a blind date with your brother!" she protested before he could open his mouth to argue his case again.

"Why not, Kagome?" Jakotsu pouted, "you barely leave the house as it is, aren't you a little frustrated?" He waggled his eye brows suggestively.

Haughtily wrinkling her nose to cover her blush, Kagome turned from the idiot to find Sesshoumaru looming over her ominously.

"S-sesshoumaru?" she squeaked.

A malicious glint sparkled in his eyes, a glint that set Kagome's teeth on edge. "Are you so frustrated that you must rely on pity dates, Kagome?"

Kagome closed her eyes, wondering snidely what she had ever done to deserve Sesshoumaru in her life.

"I said no didn't I?"

"So you have a boyfriend?" Sesshoumaru's voice was snide.

"You have a girlfriend?"

"I have little need for a girlfriend; they are awfully clingy beings. Besides, we are talking about you, my sexually frustrated friend."

"I'm neither sexually frustrated nor your friend!"

Tilting his head, long silver hair sliding across her exposed shoulder, Sesshoumaru dropped his mouth to her ear. "Really Kagome?" he asked as he traced the shell of her ear with her tongue.

Smirking in triumph as she shuddered, he departed smugly.

"I hate you!"


	21. Secret Contact

Title: Secret Contact

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: For Keeps [oneshot#

Rating: T

Words: 1,193

Summary: Sesshoumaru vents his frustrations and Inuyasha takes the moral high ground. Continues from my 'lick' drabble 'Secret Frustrations'.

Crack.

Her pencil snapped pitifully, the snapping noise breaking the terse silence. Sesshoumaru sat back confidently in his chair, watching her with a smug satisfaction that made her want to shut his head in her desk drawer a few times.

Standing abruptly, she glowered at the fanged smirk Sesshoumaru bestowed upon her.

"Be careful not to fall now," he mocked softly.

Ever since the incident when he had taken her flying and he had uncovered her fear of flying, she had known, as she sometimes knew, that something bad was brewing.

Not disastrous bad. More like migraine inducing bad.

Sesshoumaru was her migraine.

He'd commented on her new heels, asking her if she was sure she would be okay 'all the way up there'. When that had failed to garner a reaction he had enquired as to whether she would be stable enough, and that he didn't fancy having to keep catching clumsy women. Sometimes, she really wished she could pull out that shiny hair, clump by satisfying clump.

The ringing phone interrupted her intended rebuke and she flipped it open.

"Hello?" she asked turning her back on Sesshoumaru haughtily, "oh, yeah, maybe, yeah. I'll be there."

And then she stalked into Bankotsu's office hastily.

Sesshoumaru observed Bankotsu and Kagome suspiciously as they conversed within the confines of his office; it had become increasingly hard to enjoy tormenting Kagome with him as their manager. He seemed to have a particular affection for the girl, constantly talking to her and whispering behind closed doors. He was certain that whatever secrets Kagome was keeping, the feminine male was privy to.

It was infuriating.

An interference with Kagome's torment, Bankotsu was spoiling Kagome's fun.

Glancing up from his musings he noted that the mischievous woman had vanished! She was getting proficient at escaping him, unfortunately.

Materialising from nowhere, Bankotsu appeared in front of the desk to gaze down at him imperiously. "Kagome had to leave to look after her niece," he proclaimed, twirling the end of his plait around one slender finger.

Sesshoumaru grinned; Rin liked him, she wouldn't object if he were to 'coincidentally' show up, right?

"Don't even think about it!" Bankotsu reprimanded, correctly interoperating the cunning light in Sesshoumaru's eyes. "I volunteered you to do her work while she's gone."

Sesshoumaru scowled darkly at the man who was inspecting his fuchsia false nails idly. He wondered indolently how much trouble he would land himself in if he were to accidentally annihilate Bankotsu.

Apparently sighting the murderous intent in the Inu's eyes, Bankotsu dropped the manuscripts onto Sesshoumaru's desk and tottered quickly back to the relative safety of his office as fast as his three inch heels could carry him.

Slack tied, jacketless and mildly intoxicated, Sesshoumaru leant both his elbows on the bar and stared into his glass of bourbon like it would reveal the secrets of the universe if he waited long enough.

"Why so glum, chum?" the bar tender, a male ookami infamous for his womanising and obstinate nature, asked casually.

"I am not your chum," Sesshoumaru answered curtly. This bar was one of his frequent haunts; a place where none of his upper-class friends would ever find him it also served good sake. All he asked on days like this one.

Bankotsu had worked him to the bone and, much to his dismay, Kagome had never returned from seeing Rin. He was now trying to get drunk, though it was hard with his Yokai metabolism burning away at the alcohol; he thought he could pass for mildly intoxicated.

The ookami grinned at the Inu. "Ah, women problems, wanna talk about it?"

Sesshoumaru attempted to glower a hole in the bar. "I have no women problems," he snorted derisively.

"Yeah, sure," Kouga muttered unbelievingly as he refilled Sesshoumaru's glass with sake.

Sesshoumaru thought about Kagome for a moment, was she the reason he was so irked? Perhaps, she'd been avoiding his teasingly lately and he'd even found himself being nice to her upon occasion. She was beginning to become confusing, he wasn't sure he agreed with that turn of events.

"I have no problem, save that she specialises in the art of escaping," Sesshoumaru griped, remembering the way she had disappeared just that morning when he'd been planning on taunting her.

The ookami chortled, his blue eyes sparkling with mirth and compassion. "I hear you there!"

Sesshoumaru treated the wolf to a dirty glare."I, unlike you, do not stalk women."

Well... not very often... besides it was surveillance, not stalking.

The ookami grit his teeth at the snub and shrugged. "Whatever."

Sesshoumaru glowered at the wolf as he stalked away to serve a bunch of women who had just descended upon the establishment.

He didn't stalk Kagome! He was adamant of such. The mutt would back him up on this one.

Flipping his phone upon, the mildly intoxicated Sesshoumaru dialled Inuyasha's number.

Inuyasha answered after a long pause, his voice gruff and evidently incensed. "Why the hell are you calling me on my honeymoon asshole? I told you I'd be gone a month!"

Sesshoumaru blinked, ah, yes, he'd forgotten about that.

"I do not stalk your friend," he informed Inuyasha, belatedly remembering the reason he had called in the first place.

There was a long static pause. "Sesshoumaru, how drunk are you?"

"Not very."

"Sure," Inuyasha's agreement was patronising, "since when do you call me about Kagome? Accept, of course, for those times you use me in a scheme to torment her?"

"Hn." Sesshoumaru didn't want to admit it but the whelp was correct, how much had he drunk? He tried to count the empty sake bottles but only succeeded in enticing a headache.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Inuyasha asked, and then scoffed, "I can't believe I just asked you that."

Sesshoumaru glowered at his empty glass and contemplated his brother's words. Was he okay? "I am dissatisfied with Kagome's avoidance techniques, the game is not nearly so amusing when she does not play."

"Now you sound like a teenager with a crush." There was a moment's pause as Inuyasha mulled this one over. "And that's better not be the case because, first, that's mean we've fallen into a parallel universe where you like humans and, second, even if you were in a parallel universe you still wouldn't deserve her."

Did the whelp just suggest that he, the Sesshoumaru, wasn't worthy of a ningen woman? He'd pay for the insult.

"Half-breed—" Sesshoumaru began warningly.

"I'm not insultin' ya!" Inuyasha backpedalled hastily.

"Then what are you insinuating?" Sesshoumaru asked, ice saturating his tone.

"I'm sayin' that you can't do that whole womanising thing with Kagome, she's for keeps, you know? Special and shit."

"How eloquent," Sesshoumaru sneered.

"Insult me all you want," Inuyasha was blunt, "doesn't make me any less right. now, I'm trying to relax on my damn honeymoon here."

Sesshoumaru frowned his displeasure as the Hanyou hung up on him. Who did he think he was?

Besides, the Hanyou had the wrong end of the stick entirely. He held no affection for the onna, she was merely a toy with which he amused himself.

For keeps indeed.


	22. Secret Conversations

Title: Secret Conversations

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Cloud [drabble#87]

Words: 400

Warnings: None.

Genre: Humour

Rating: T

Summary: Rin and Kagome take refuge from the rain and Kagome get's coerced into Kagura's plot. Continues from my 'For Keeps' drabble Secret Contact.

"You know how they say every cloud has a silver lining?" Kagura asked, her tone betraying her absolute boredom.

"Yeah?" Kagome asked huddling Rin further into her side, under the gazebo they had taken shelter in from the abrupt downpour.

"This cloud is breaking the stereotype." Kagura narrowed her ruby red eyes at the cloud in question and it seemed to shrink slightly in the wake of her angry gaze.

Kagome chuckled and Rin giggled as she climbed into Kagome's coat, obscuring herself almost completely from view apart from her protruding, bulky, pink-casted leg.

"Thanks for looking after Rin until I got here," Kagome reiterated her thanks to the young girl.

Kagura shrugged and smoothed down the skirt of her school uniform, making a show out of wringing out her blazer in a bid to prompt Rin's unstoppable giggles; on cue she creased up.

"No problem, I didn't have anything to do today anyway," Kagura tilted her head to one side to observe Kagome shrewdly. "Did someone ask for an impromptu reading?"

Rin swung Kagome's hands clasped with her own and looked up at her. "Yeah, where were you?"

. Ever since Kagura, Rin's plucky teenage neighbour, had inadvertently discovered Kagome's innate ability she'd been fascinated with it and Rin followed suit; she adored Kagura.

Kagome had told Kagura, offhandedly, that looking up more often would be good. The next day Kagura had narrowly avoided being squished when a painter had almost toppled off a ladder onto the poor girl. She'd been intrigued and asked Kagome, Kagome hadn't seen the harm in disclosing her innate abilities.

"Nah, nothing so glamorous, I was hiding from Sesshoumaru," Kagome confided abashedly.

"Sesshoumaru?" Kagura enquired.

"Yeah!" Rin chirped, "he's really nice, he bought me a phone and he works with Kagome-Obasan!"

Kagura grinned lasciviously. "Oh, so it's like that is it, Kagome-chan?"

Blushing brilliantly, Kagome shook her head vehemently. "No! Of course not, Rin is just reading too much into it."

"Sure," Kagura's voice belied her amusement at Kagome's mortified dismissal of the topic, "And you're not blushing either."

Rin's helpless giggling prompted Kagome's blush to spread unfortunately down her neck.

Kagura grinned as the pelting of rain against the gazebo ceased. "Well, my parents are having a barbeque this weekend, you're invited, why don't you bring Sesshoumaru with you?"

Kagome groaned as Rin fixed her with those pleading eyes that she couldn't resist.


	23. Secret Skin

Title: Secret Skin

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Skin [oneshot#44]

Words: 919

Rating: T

Genre: Humour Romance

Summary: Continues from my 'cloud' drabble Secret Conversations. Kagome is bemused by Sesshoumaru's apparent normality and the wind reveals something she'd rather keep secret.

The stifling heat of the heady, warm, stifling summer's day beat down oppressively on the beings gathered in the wilting garden. Not that it discouraged their happy mingling.

Children screamed and giggled as they ran through the forests of grown-up-legs, people flirted, men gathered in little groups to discuss sports and women collected in little niches to discuss the ridiculousness of their erstwhile husbands and partners, teenagers converged in covert bunches grouching over being denied alcohol, woman chastised men who tried to barbeque but burnt all the food.

Smoothing down her already impeccably straight summer dress for the millionth time in the last second, Kagome tried not to glance around like a deer being hunted.

But, the truth was, she did feel hunted. Sesshoumaru was here, in the back garden of Kagura's house, conversing with the neighbours over burnt barbeque grub. It was weird. Kagome felt like any second now this strange little alternate reality she had constructed would fall away, leaving her to wake up confused but in the right dimension.

After all, Sesshoumaru did not make small talk, he certainly didn't mingle and there was no way he had even accepted her reluctant invitation to the soirée in a backyard to begin with.

And then his golden eyes caught her grey-blue ones across the garden and she knew she wasn't hallucinating.

"So that's him, huh?" Kagura mused, appearing by Kagome's side in a pair of frayed denim shorts and a t-shirt that bared her navel.

"Yeah," Kagome grouched, "I can't believe he agreed to come here."

Kagura's smirk turned lascivious."If I were a little older..."

"Kagura!" Kagome admonished.

"You can't keep him to yourself forever, Kagome-chan!" Kagura gave her a jaunty salute and scampered away to greet others that she knew.

Kagome rolled her eyes and claimed the chilled beverage she had been fetching for Rin before retreating to the relative sanctity of Rin's shaded hide-away. The child sat with her plaster encased leg on a pink cushion, too-big sunglasses perched on her nose and a book in her lap as she watched the proceedings.

Handing Rin the drink Kagome frowned softly, "You aren't upset are you Rin?" Rin was the only child in attendance that wasn't able to run around like a child demented.

Rin grinned toothily. "Nah, the kids here are either way younger than me or lots older than me, besides, Sesshoumaru-san gave me this!"

She held the book aloft triumphantly and Kagome smiled and ruffled her hair affectionately. Mee, who had been chatting to the mothers, chose that moment to pull up a seat.

"Kagome-chan, who is that handsome man watching you?" she asked innocently, her eyes as huge and unassuming as her daughter Rin's.

"My stalker," Kagome explained, well aware that Sesshoumaru was probably eavesdropping.

"Stalker?" Mee's eyes grew even wider, if that was possible, and she gaped like a fish.

Kagome waved her hands quickly, dispelling whatever image Mee had drafted up.

"He's not a scary stalker, just an annoying one," she clarified, sort of.

Mee seemed to calm down somewhat but remained dubious when she replied, "Well, if you're sure."

"It's okay Mama, Kagome-Obasan likes Sesshoumaru!" Rin enthused slurping noisily on her juice through the straw.

Mee blinked owlishly at Kagome. "Kagome-chan?"

Kagome stood abruptly, she didn't really want to talk about a 'relationship' that she wasn't even sure she had. "I'm going to get a drink for myself," she excused herself swiftly.

The refreshment table was bustling with people desiring a refill on their beverage, the sun was unforgiving and the assembled people seemed to be combating it as best they could with icy drinks.

When the tides of people finally abated, Kagome stared solemnly into the punch bowl, contemplating the likelihood of it already being laced with alcohol, there were enough teenagers that it was a distinct possibility.

Suddenly a cup was thrust into her hands as a strand of silver hair caressed the bare skin of her shoulder; Sesshoumaru was behind her. Though he remained slightly apart so that he wasn't touching her, she could feel the heat of his body against her back.

"Drink it, it's not poisoned," he murmured in her ear, remaining close she started when his arms came down on either side of her; preventing her escape. To anyone else they would have looked like lovers having coquettish conversation against the drink table.

"I wasn't worried about poison," she muttered, wondering how best to escape him without seeming rude to everyone else gathered. She longed to elbow him in the spleen, but that was probably taking things too far.

"Then why were you staring at it?" he pondered, hand brushing her hip as he snagged a glass for himself from the table.

"Is there alcohol in it?" she asked; if anyone would know Sesshoumaru would.

"Please don't tell me you're afraid of a little alcohol," he scoffed.

"I'm not afraid, I just get drunk really easily," she muttered.

"Sometimes you seem far too innocent for your own good," he scoffed, pulling away at precisely the wrong moment.

Kagome turned to glare at him precisely when the wind picked up and answered the sweaty people's prayers. The draft played havoc with her skirt and she shrieked piercingly as her panties were revealed to anyone who cared to look.

Chuckling throatily, Sesshoumaru's eyes glittered. "Virginal white? I expected no less, Kagome."

Grimly, a blushing Kagome chugged back the glass of dubious punch, suddenly she no longer cared whether there was alcohol in it or not.

A/N: I know, I know, panty flashes are a dime a dozen in fan fiction... but I just couldn't resist ^_^


	24. Secret Intoxication

**Title**: Secret Intoxication

**Author**: aimee_blue

**Prompt**: Lace [drabble#88]

**Rating**: T

**Genre**: Humour Romance.

**Words**: 200

**Summary**: Continues from my 'Skin' oneshot 'Secret Skin'. Sesshoumaru experiences an unusual emotion and ponders Kagome's newest personality nuance.

Guilt was a highly unusual occurrence, so unusual in fact it had taken Sesshoumaru five minutes to figure out what the gnawing feeling in his gut was.

He probably should've alerted the Miko to the fact that the punch had been laced with alcohol.

Too late now.

As he watched, she grabbed a handful of her own hair and tried to disentangle the plum-blossoms that nestled in the wavy tresses. She was having an exceedingly hard time getting her hand to cooperate.

He paced over to her and she scowled up at him through her mussed up hair.

"When you said you had a low alcohol tolerance you weren't joking," he mused.

"You're too sparkly," she mumbled.

He wryly supposed he _was_ standing in the sun.

"You sneaked up on me," she hissed angrily before groaning and putting her head on her knees. "Head hurts."

"Baby," he cajoled and she hit his leg with her head.

"Meanie!"

"Don't sound so triumphant, baka." He pushed her hair back behind her ears. "How did you get drunk off of three glasses of punch?"

She considered this for so long he feared she'd fallen asleep against his leg but then piped up, "Skill!"

"Hn."


	25. Secret Chef

Title: Secret Chef

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Closet [oneshot#45]

Genre: humour romance

Words: 2,748

Summary: Continues from my Lace drabble Secret Intoxication. Sesshoumaru saves Kagome from an unwanted pursuer and demands repayment.

Sesshoumaru blinked down at Kagome as she glowered sheepishly back up at him. This was an unforeseen occurrence; he knew where she lived, but he had never utilised the privilege and gone to her home. Yet she utilised her own knowledge of his address and here she was, in his door, glowering menacingly... or rather, it would have been menacing were she not out of breath with rosy cheeks, soaked clothes and her hair swept up in tussled, saturated, disarray. Evidence of the storm that had just begun to stake its claim over the city outside.

Comparatively, he was the epitome of calm and collected. Donned in casual jeans and a white half-unbuttoned shirt, reading glasses perched rakishly on the end of his aristocratic nose.

"Yes?" he enquired, quite amiably considering his current bafflement at her sudden manifestation in his apartment building.

"Help me!" she demanded, tossing a panicky glance over her shoulder before turning back to glower at him.

"Speaking in that tone will not garner help," he drawled, attempting to close the door on the harassed looking woman.

Thunder crackled to life outside as she stuck her foot in the door, preventing him from closing it. She looked up at him balefully and wrapped a tiny hand around his forearm constrictively. "Please."

Now he was intrigued. Crooking a brow he looked her up and down again, noting the mud on her jeans. How had she gotten so dirty?

"What is it I am saving you from?" He sighed resignedly.

She grimaced and flicked a glance over her shoulder. "I seem to have acquired an overly amorous admirer."

Chased by a man? He was simply stunned, she'd never been hounded that viciously before that she'd been forced to ask for his help. He knew she'd rather burn her own fingertips off than actually ask him for help, so she must be in some tricky bind.

Was the pursuing male that vivacious that she had to run to him?

Shrieking, she launched herself behind him and hid behind his torso, clinging to his shirt so tightly he would've thought she'd embedded her claws in the material, were she not human.

"What?" he asked pausing in bemusement as he heard it.

The pitter-pattering of clawed padded feet thundering across linoleum.

Kagome's assailant rounded the corner and set determined eyes on the small woman as she peered out from behind her shield.

It was a dog.

Specifically a Doberman with an insanely determined glint in its eyes.

This was her pursuer? And how did it get up the stairs?

The dog bounded up to them and snapped warningly at Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru blinked languidly, unconcerned with the antics of the beast, he was not going to hand his pet over to some stubborn animal. She was his plaything, he didn't share well. With beast nor man.

The growling snapping noise was issued again and Sesshoumaru almost sniggered as he felt Kagome flinch and try to look as small as possible behind his back.

Golden eyes met those of inferior intelligence as he attempted to bestow his will upon the mutt without verbally issuing a warning. It was uncouth to snarl at stray dogs in corridors.

When the dog merely raised its hackled and snarled louder, Sesshoumaru's patience snapped, not that he'd ever been very patient with beings that didn't listen to him.

A booming, terrifying snarl ripped through the corridor, pressingly frightening in intensity; it made Kagome jump in shock.

The dog whimpered and, tail between its legs, bid a hasty retreat down the corridor.

Sesshoumaru smirked in petty satisfaction. It might have been a trivial victory but he revelled in every one he had ever achieved, from the petty child hood races through gardens with his half-brother to the academic achievement of staying indubitably ahead of all his peers, each victory was cherished.

"You seem to attract the strangest suitors," he commented astutely as he turned back to the rumpled Kagome, fighting down a grin as she hit her nose against his chest and rubbed at it in mollification.

"Yeah well, I have a feeling I just fled from the dog to be ensnared by the dog demon," she quipped irritably, starting to shove past him into the hall to escape, no doubt.

He snatched the back of her shirt and yanked her backwards into the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

"Wha—"

"Do you think you are escaping that easily?" he demanded, "I assisted you, now I expect something in return."

She paled when he dragged her into his bedroom. He wasn't going to ask her to do _that_ with him was he?

No way! Not even Sesshoumaru was that much of a jerk.

A towel clipped her in the side of the face and she nearly fell over from shock.

"Dry yourself, you'll get sick," he coddled in an emotionless voice that juxtaposed the sentimentality of the statement.

"Um... sure," she muttered, patting her hair softly with the towel that Sesshoumaru had tossed her whilst trying to hide her blush.

"Why are you blushing like a fool?" he inquired, leaning into her personal space with a gimlet stare on his face.

"I'm not!" she protested adamantly, pulling the towel to hide her face and burning cheeks whilst inhaling the scent clinging to it discretely. It smelt woodsy, manly, pure Sesshoumaru. She was kind of embarrassed she knew what Sesshoumaru smelt like. How'd that happened? When had she become so familiar with him?

"Indeed," he shoved her towards his closet, "change into one of my shirts and I'll dry your clothes for you."

She blinked and he fought the urge to roll his eyes as he slowly backed her into the wardrobe. "Get changed and stop gawking at me."

Obediently, she plucked a nondescript light blue shirt from a hanger and still slightly bewildered at his almost caring actions, she dumped her soaking shirt with a splat onto the hardwood floor and her skirt soon followed. Sesshoumaru's shirt was huge on her, sleeves that hung past her arms so she looked like a child wearing her father's shirt. It hung down past her knees too, so huge it was farcical.

She pondered the Doberman incident mournfully as she adjusted her makeshift outfit. If she'd known she was going to be chased by a Doberman intent on having its way with her she wouldn't have been anywhere near Sesshoumaru's house in the first place; he was not the person you went to in a crisis. However, he was the nearest available assistance and she had been desperate. The dog hadn't seemed to comprehend boundaries between species.

Wrinkling her nose she gathered the wet clothes into her arms and progressed tentatively to the kitchen where she could hear Sesshoumaru pottering around with tea cups. Spoons clinked amiably creating a feeling of normalcy that she had never really expected from Sesshoumaru.

"Where do I put my clothes?" she asked tentatively, wondering if her voice would break the spell and he'd stop being nice and start being Sesshoumaru-ish once more. Sure, she knew he could be nice sometimes like with Rin, no one could argue that he was anything other than tender and careful when with her. Plus, he was always catching her when she fell and, if she disregarded the taunting about her fear of heights, he had shown her that beautiful sunset on his cloud.

But was she fishing for something that wasn't there?

Miroku, upon hearing all of her complaints had decided that Sesshoumaru was flirting. Kagome had killed herself laughing for three solid minutes before she realised he wasn't joking. Well, if all this time Sesshoumaru had been trying to flirt he was going about it in a horribly obtuse manner.

Languidly blinking at her, he took the clothes from her arms and chucked them haphazardly into the dryer before slamming the door shut and twirling the knobs to get the machine started. She smirked; she'd never seen him look so domesticated.

Kagome shifted from foot to foot as she realised that she was suddenly the centre of Sesshoumaru's attention, which had never been a good thing before.

Fetching. Yes, that was an accurate description of the woman. She was dwarfed by his clothing but the physical embodiment of his claim over his toy was a joy to behold.

Golden eyes perused her form carefully. "Hn. That shirt makes you look tiny," he scoffed, "positively miniscule."

He really knew how to make her scrap all her considerably good feelings about him in the blink of an eye.

Stomping her foot against the kitchen tiles lightly; not aggravated enough to throw a full scale tantrum, she folded her arms and demanded, "So, what do you want from me?"

"Melodramatic," he uttered under his breath, running a hand through his hair in a cavalier fashion, "You make it sound like I've kidnapped you."

"Well you are the big bad demon, plus you did cart me in here, who's to say you aren't trying to kidnap me!"

"You are entirely impossible," he allowed one fang to show over his bottom lip, "but then, the games we play would be no fun if you were not."

Her head canted to one side as she considered his word; was that how he saw their relationship? As a game?

"Game?" she asked softly, unsure why she felt slightly disappointed at the revelation. Maybe her feelings for him had grown? His endless torments had garnered some sort of emotional response?

"Yes," he inclined his head, "It is my most favoured game."

Well, if it's his 'most favoured' game, she thought dryly, cocking one eyebrow in exasperation.

"You sure you aren't just flirting?" she asked, snagging the kettle and arranging their cups on saucers for the tea.

"Hn," he replied, watching her potter around from the other side of the kitchen, where he leant against the sink with his arms crossed over his chest, "that depends entirely on you."

"It does?" she inquired.

"Indeed, if you see it as flirting, then so be it," he purred deviously, earning himself a half-glare as she passed him his tea.

"I don't want to know how to elucidate it," she haggled, sipping gently from her cup before wincing as it burned her tongue. Blowing into the tea whimsically, she turned a soft glare on him. "I want to know how you meant it."

Calculating topaz eyes surveyed the one with questions as she observed him from over the rim of her cup with large doe-like blue eyes.

Well, he hadn't expected this line of questioning. His brother's words about Kagome being 'for keeps' filtered into his mind even as he mentally shook his head to clear away such ludicrous thoughts.

Tilting his head slightly to one side, he pondered her question. The answer was simple, right? She was his toy, he enjoyed playing with her. There was nothing more to it.

Except, once he'd met her for the first time he had dropped all of his former toys in order to best concentrate his devious attentions on her – that was simple, he merely found her more fascinating than the others, plus he had been growing tired with the previous fickle girls on his arm anyway.

Then there was the fact that he chased all her would-be suitors away before they could properly engage with her – but that was simply because he didn't share his precious toys.

She was also his only toy and unusual occurrence considering he had previously kept five girls to play with – but that was merely so he could devote all his time to annoying her.

He'd settled for a salary man job when he was actually probably wealthy enough to buy the company he worked in just so he could be near to her – but that was merely to ensure her every moment was filled with agitation; so she could delight him with her obstinate nature more often.

He wanted to know everything about her, all of her secrets were his to decipher – but that was because he needed to know everything about his toy in order to best enjoy tormenting her.

Exactly! She was a simple toy, nothing more.

"Are you okay?"

Jolted back to the world of the living by the hand being waved in his face, he went slightly cross-eyed at her sudden close-proximity.

She was standing so close to him that counting her eyelashes would be an easy feat, but her befuddled face was precious. Precious? He promptly erased that word from his vocabulary.

Unable to resist the urge to taunt her once more, deft fangs deftly grasped her nose softly for a moment, before releasing the poor bemused girl who had nearly dropped her tea in her astonishment.

"Why'd you do that?" she demanded.

"You put your nose near my mouth then I am obliged to bite it," he scoffed haughtily, "I am after all a predator Yokai."

"But I didn't think you hunted poor defenceless noses!" she protested, holding her nose as if she were afraid it would fall off at the hands of his abuse.

"Ridiculous," he grumbled, the woman poked her tongue out at him and he bit back the urge to laugh. Where had the sure questioning woman from before retreated too? Now she was as childish as she always was when he managed to rile her.

"So," she regained a modicum of composure and sipped at her almost-forgotten tea, "You said you wanted something in return for helping me, what is it?"

"Hn," Sesshoumaru stared into his teacup for a moment; he'd almost forgotten about that.

Groaning, Kagome smacked her free hand to her head, "You'd forgotten hadn't you?"

"Indeed, but thank you for the reminder," he hummed smugly, she scowled at him. Sipping his tea thoughtfully he wondered about a way to tease her whilst she repaid him. He was falling into a repetitive pattern of taunts so he wanted something to liven up his repertoire.

Something that would make her fume... or make her bemused.

"Daifuku," he decided with an affirming nod of his head, "make me Daifuku mochi."

"Daifuku mochi, really?" she asked, a bemused expression painting its way across her nubile features. He didn't strike her as the type to enjoy the sweet glutinous rice cake with sweet filling.

"Hn," he treated her to a stern glance that promised no escape. She sighed exasperatedly at the strange demon.

"It'll take a while," she warned.

"I am aware of that," he answered evenly.

"I need some shiratama-ko do you have any? And some katakuriko and anko powder and –"

"I will get you what you need," he fended her questions off, "just obey, Kagome."

"Hey, don't tell me to obey like I'm some mutt!"

"Then refrain from insulting Inu," he bartered haughtily.

"Hmph, fine!" she huffed, folding her arms and putting on her best business face, "I'll make your Daifuku!"

* * *

Nearly four hours and a few culinary disasters later, Kagome sighed as she set the tray of strawberry Daifuku down and placed the sweet treats onto a plate. She was swamped in Sesshoumaru's large apron and her hair had been tied back with chopsticks to stay out of her way as she worked. Her hair had nevertheless managed to get sprinkled with anko powder but she wore a triumphant grin as she presented the works of her labour up for Sesshoumaru's perusal.

He inspected them with a critical eye and she waited with narrowed eyes for his verdict.

"They are charming enough," he mumbled, "outwardly."

Taking one from the plate he bit into it daintily and chewed thoughtfully for a while before nodding his approval.

Grinning, she plucked one from the plate and eagerly bit into the sweet treat with a happy relish.

"Mmm," she mumbled, "it's good!"

"Indeed," he allowed, "but there is no need to stuff your face, they will not run away."

"Oh, shut up and enjoy it!" she scolded, finishing off her Daifuku exceedingly quickly and snagging another from the plate.

"Glutton," he chastised.

Poking her tongue out she proceeded to devour the second as if it was a competition. Pausing in her quest to eat them all before Sesshoumaru could, she glanced at him questioningly. "Why'd you want me to make you these anyway?"

"Obedience is taught progressively by a good master, then a pet learns its place," he informed her.

"I'd throw one of these at your smug head, but I like them too much."

* * *

A/N: Daifuku Mochi mentioned here are delicious, and this oneshot won third place!


	26. Secret Observations

Title: Secret Observations  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Turn [drabble#89]  
Words: 100  
Genre: Humour romance  
Summary: Continues from my 'Closet' oneshot Secret Chef. Sesshoumaru deals with an emotion as of yet untried.

Sesshoumaru frowned as Kagome and Jakotsu perused the marketing manager using the photocopier.

"Nice ass," Jakotsu whispered appreciatively.

Kagome's lips quirked in agreement, Sesshoumaru's frown darkened into a scowl.

"If you want her attention," Bankotsu chipped in; Sesshoumaru had been trying his best to ignore the annoying man hovering behind him, "then turn her head, like him."

Sesshoumaru's eyes zeroed in on the – in his humble opinion – unexceptional male that Jakotsu was still molesting with his eyes. The flirtatious glint in Kagome's eyes struck something within him. But appearances had to be kept.

"And risk being ogled by Jakotsu? No."


	27. Secretly Vulnerable

Title: Secretly Vulnerable.

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Grass [drabble#90]

Words: 300

Rating: T

Genre: humour/ romance

Summary: Kagome is concerned where she shouldn't be, but her concern leads her to a revelation.

Kagome glared at the empty desk and mulled over the whereabouts of her co-worker with more worry than was strictly necessary. Biting her lip, she frowned and made up her mind; she'd go and check Sesshoumaru was alright... but not because she was worried.

Kagome rapped lightly on Sesshoumaru's door and pressed her ear against the wood, listening for sounds of movement.

Jumping back as the door opened, she grinned sheepishly at the bleary looking Sesshoumaru.

He blinked languidly at her, running a hand through sleep-tussled silver locks merely making his hair more unruly than before.

"Are you ill?"

"Yes."

"Do you feel sick?"

"Yes."

"Have you been sick?"

"No."

"Would grass help?"

"I am not a dog," he scoffed, turning his head to cough for a moment; he turned back to her with flushed cheeks and a vulnerable expression that he tried hard to mask.

"Can I come in?"

"If you must," he turned and loped back over to the sofa where he reclaimed his former position wrapped in a veritable blanket fortress.

He looked kind of cute. Sat there, wrapped in so many blankets that only golden eyes, a pale blue crescent moon, fluffy silver hair and tips of pointed ears were visible.

She ransacked the kitchen and the bathroom, returning with a bowl of soup and a cold cloth for his forehead.

He submitted to her attentions with a sigh of acquiescence and she wilfully took up position beside him on the sofa.

Soon after, golden eyes drooped shut and she smiled as he fell asleep, leaning his head against her shoulder.

"Don't tell anyone," she whispered as he snuffled his face into her hair and she ran her finger along the point of one fey ear, "but I think you're kind of cute like this."


	28. Secretive Diseases

Title: Secretive Diseases

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: conscience [oneshot#46]

Rating: T

Genre: humour/romance

Words: 3,111

Warnings: A little harmless innuendo and underwear flashing.

Summary: They say that bad things happen to good people, apparently demon flu viruses adhere to this rule.

Under any normal circumstances Kagome avoided Sesshoumaru like he was the plague; she had almost perfected the art of avoiding his scathing remarks and deflecting his superiority complex. But he seemed capable of catching her at every hurdle, because Kagome had no defence mechanism in place to combat the sheer adorability of a sick-puppy Sesshoumaru.

Unable to stay from his apartment for long, she ran errands for him; cooking him what he wanted to eat, fetching his medicine, tottering around his house getting him hot-water-bottles and cold flannelettes for his forehead. She became accustomed to regular cuddles, encased within the nest of covers he built for them, and surprisingly considering his usual icy temperament, he was a very good snuggle buddy.

The Yokai was a veritable space heater who had a slight penchant for having his ears scratched and his markings stroked, not that she minded. Loveable and huggable was a nice change from distant and mocking; deliriously sick Sesshoumaru was her new best friend and she was having a lot of fun looking after him.

Only a twinge of guilt was felt when she took his key for easier coming and going access and she got immersed in the routine of working and then coming to see the overgrown sickly puppy after her work was done.

He was generally waiting for her, in his little nest of blankets and cushions, watching some b-rated movie that probably wasn't fit for viewing if one wished to keep their sanity intact.

Arms laden with shopping, Kagome backed into the apartment and bustled into the kitchen to put the groceries away before unwinding her scarf from around her neck and taking up residence next to Sesshoumaru on the sofa.

"How are you?" she asked softly, pressing a hand to his forehead and absentmindedly tracing the crescent moon that rested there on his pale brow.

"Getting better," he muttered softly, burrowing his face into the side of her neck and taking in her scent in long lethargic drags. She giggled as his hot breath ghosted over her collar bone.

"Getting better? You're still too cuddly to be better, Sesshoumaru," she admonished softly relaxing as he leant his head against her shoulder, his hair spilling across her in a silken curtain.

"Medicine's effect," he grunted, still nosing around her collar bone intently.

She watched his eyelids droop languidly, revealing the magenta stripes that adorned them as he slowly fell asleep against her; face now pillowed against her breasts.

She passed her thumb over the bottommost stripe on the left side of his face with a slow sigh. After he was better, would this companionship revert to taunts and ridicule?

Returning to work the next morning felt like torture but there was something else niggling at the mighty Sesshoumaru...

If Sesshoumaru had a conscience, the empty seat where Kagome usually sat would probably have twanged on his heart strings. But the fact was, he didn't; he was fairly sure excessive narcissism and chronic arrogance had rendered him void of such an insignificant thing as a conscience.

But the fact that his eyes kept flickering back to her empty seat spoke volumes as his thoroughly quashed conscience bloomed into life after years of neglect.

His fingers twitched and his left eyebrow flexed; he was itching to ask Jakotsu how the apparently sick Miko was fairing. The feminine man was practically bursting with the smug knowledge of Kagome's wellbeing and it was ruffling Sesshoumaru's tail-feathers.

"Why don't you just ask me already?" Jakotsu asked, preening smugly as he slanted his eyes towards the painfully curious dog demon.

Sesshoumaru feigned obliviousness but in reality he was listening intently, had he possessed his half-brother's dog-like ears they would be trained on Jakotsu.

"She's got a monstrous flu, which you gave her by the way, you and your Yokai germs, and she's refusing to leave her bed or do much of anything."

Ah, so the human had caught a demon virus, and there was him thinking such a thing to be impossible. Apparently it was not.

Cat-like golden eyes flickered to her desk once more and, sighing as if stuck in great turmoil, Sesshoumaru decided he would go and visit the Miko after work... but not out of concern. Merely duty considering she had nursed him back to health.

Sesshoumaru rapped firmly on the door to Kagome's apartment, any passersby would have seen his scrunched up nose and impatient expression and assumed he was running late for some kind of meeting. In reality he was wincing at the scent of the ramen vendor scent that wafted up from the street below and knocking impatiently because he was certain that once inside the apartment he could banish the unwanted olfactory invasion.

The door was yanked open almost immediately and he met the eyes of her perverted friend who looked harassed; his eyes were wide and he appeared ridiculously bedraggled.

His violet orbs lit up at the sight of Sesshoumaru though, "Thank god you're here, take her!"

And with that, Sesshoumaru found himself shunted inside the apartment, the lecher closing the door behind him and locking it with an audible click.

What had the man meant, take her?

"Kagome?" he called, his deep voice seemingly reverberating throughout the entire apartment, a newspaper fell off the side of the sofa and he approached warily.

There was no one in the living room, but the debris scattered around the place hinted that it had only recently been inhabited. Scrunched up tissues toppled out of an already full wastepaper basket, a duvet lay discarded on the sofa along with a cold cloth that drooped on the coffee table next to a half eaten bowl of what his nose told him was miso soup.

A clattering sound from the kitchen garnered his attention and he slowly went to investigate, golden eyes shrewd.

But what waited for him in the kitchen was enough to make any demon tremble.

Kagome swayed in the middle of the kitchen, a whisk in one hand, the other clutching the shawl she'd slung round her bare shoulders.

Sesshoumaru would have blushed upon realising she was apparently bare underneath the shawl if he wasn't a demon and immune to the human failing of modesty.

"Kagome?" he tried hesitantly, her eyes were slightly unfocused as she gazed down at the cooker deliriously.

Her eyes swivelled to look at him, though her body remained facing the cooker. "Shoo!"

"I am not a dog," he reminded her cantankerously, folding his arms obstinately.

"Shoo!" she cried again, this time twirling to face him, her large blue eyes watering and her cheeks so red with fever it looked like sunburn, the whisk outstretched and pointed right at him, "I'm not supposed to hallucinate!"

She thought he was a hallucination? That was... strange but then he was dealing with Kagome he supposed.

"Hallucinate?" Sesshoumaru asked softly, going slightly cross-eyed at the whisk that she had pushed so close to his face it was nearly touching his nose, "Why are you hallucinating?"

She narrowed her eyes into slits, dropping the whisk down onto the floor with a clatter and thought about it for a while. "Doctor said I have a demon-flu, Jakotsu said it's the real Sesshoumaru's fault!"

"I am the real Sesshoumaru," he corrected her tersely, flicking a strand of silver hair over one shoulder brusquely.

"You said that last time," she argued, swaying more sporadically now, "but the medicine was supposed to keep you gone!"

"Medicine?"

"Yeah! Behind you," she pointed, nearly falling over from extending her arm too suddenly, as if her finger weighed a thousand pounds.

He spied the innocent enough looking medicine bottle on the side and plucked it from the side between two claws, the pills inside rattled compulsively.

Turning frantic eyes on her he half-shouted, "This is demon strength, Kagome!"

She nodded earnestly for a while until she figured out it made her headache worse and stopped so abruptly that she stumbled and had to clutch the kitchen counter. "The doctor, he told Miroku that I had to take demon strength pills because I'm spiritually aware," the sentence took her a while and he could tell she was making an effort to speak it properly.

"You are spiritually aware?" he asked curiously.

She nodded only once, seemingly mindful of her headache. "I grew up on a shrine, remember?"

"Why don't you go and sit down in the living room?" he asked, eyeing her knees distrustfully as they buckled slightly and she wavered on her feet.

She slapped away the offering arm angrily. "I'm making toast!" she protested.

"With a whisk?" he asked, eyeing the discarded implement.

"Shhh!" she pressed a finger to his lips to quieten him and swayed violently once again.

Sighing, Sesshoumaru gently swept the delirious girl off her feet and gathered her protesting body into his arms.

"No! I want my toast!"

"I will make you your toast as soon as you sit down Kagome, I promise."

"But you're a hallucination!" she protested

"If I'm a hallucination how are you being held up?" he asked dubiously, half expectant of her probably insane answer.

"I can fly?" she ventured, twirling his long forelocks around one finger absently.

"Unlikely," he muttered, baring with the indignity of having his long hair pulled on by his passenger as if he was some sort of horse that needed steering.

Pressing her hot little face to his neck she sighed softly, the influx of air ghosted over his skin forcing him to repress a shudder. "You smell nice, Sesshoumaru."

"I will remind you of that fact when you are less delirious," he promised sincerely, a hint of a smirk curving the corners of his mouth as he deposited her on the sofa and bundled her back into her duvet.

She blinked at the swaths of cloth and then beat them away, arms flailing wildly. "I'm hot!" she protested, jumping to her feet and loosing the shawl-cape.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened to painful proportions as he looked at her; he'd assumed she was naked under the shawl but he supposed he should have expected otherwise, the bunny rabbit panties were fairly commonplace, even likely from Kagome, the bra on the other hand was a scary greying contraption that looked more painful and hideous than practical. Perhaps it was meant as chastity underwear? He wasn't sure.

Sighing heavily at his predicament, he slipped the shawl back around her shoulders, holding it there as she tried to rid herself of it.

"No!" she protested, wriggling like a landed fish.

"If you keep this on I'll make you three slices of toast," he bribed; who would've guessed it would be this hard to preserve her modesty?

She considered this for a while, her eyelids drooping sleepily, "M'kay," she muttered, flopping, boneless, onto the sofa and sinking into the forgiving cushions.

Slipping the toast into the toaster, Sesshoumaru set it going and collected the whisk she had dropped, placing it back into its rightful place.

That was when he felt it.

A most entirely unexpected sensation.

What the hell?

"Kagome, are you biting me?" he asked incredulously, without turning around, struck dumb by the audacity of her shenanigans.

Small human teeth prickled against the exposed skin where his neck met his shoulder and they refused to relinquish their tight grip on his neck; though it didn't hurt it was an uncomfortable position to be in. For a demon such as Sesshoumaru this submission hold was ludicrous considering whose jaws he was captured in and he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the nerve of the human.

He felt the pressure against his neck shift as she nodded.

"Why?" he asked exasperatedly.

"Wanted to see what you tasted like," she mumbled around the demon she was gnawing on.

Repressing the mental images her statement prompted, Sesshoumaru prised her off his neck and shoved the toast in her mouth. "Taste this instead."

She chewed ferociously for a long time and then glared up at him. "You're so mean to me!" she whined, pouting in a way that made her look like a petulant toddler.

"You need to sleep," he proposed, sceptical that she would even submit to his wishes.

"You'll have to make me," she challenged, backing off slightly, eyes bright and cheeks as red as red could be.

Clawed hands reached out for her arm but the claws merely ghosted across her arm as she skidded away from him on her socks.

Nothing like a game of 'Catch The Kagome' to make a demon want to tear his own hair out.

She was acting so strange it was fairly laughable and whilst a part of him found it amusing that the medicine was making her loopy another part was struggling with guilt as it dealt with the fact that he'd caused her illness.

Seconds later she had been pounced upon by a fed up Sesshoumaru, bundled up in her duvet and relegated to her sofa where Sesshoumaru kept her prisoner in his arms, ignoring any and all insane ramblings until the sedative part of the medicine kicked in and she slumped against him; suddenly exhausted.

"You know," she grumbled as she wriggled in his lap to make herself more comfortable, "you're not very comfy, you're too stiff," she pushed futilely at his shoulder earning herself a quirk of his eyebrow.

The amount of ways he could have interpreted that last comment... but he'd decided to wait until after she was better and less loopy.

"Shut up and go to sleep, crazy Kagome," he chastised softly leaning back into the sofa as she finally relaxed and succumbed to the beckoning world of dreams.

Retail therapy was good for a woman who'd been dealing with a sick roommate for the past twenty four hours. Sango had felt a twang of guilt at abandoning Miroku to Kagome's crazy illness-induced hyperactivity but she'd gleefully drowned it out and gone shopping until it hurt to even walk.

Now she rested her poor hurting feet and flexed her stiff hands to get the circulation going again; lugging bags around all day was enough to make anyone's hands ache.

Gleefully biting into her green tea kasutera she indulged in a little bout of crowd watching, only to be surprised by a particular member of the crowd.

Sango blinked as she watched Miroku swerve and slither through the pressing crowd to get to her seat outside her favourite cafe; what on earth was he doing here? He was supposed to be looking after Kagome!

"Explain," she demanded as an out-of-breath Miroku stopped by her tableside.

"She was driving me up the wall Sango!" he pleaded mournfully, hands clasping her own lovingly.

"So much so that you decided to leave her alone? How could you, you know that the medicine makes her slightly delirious!"

"Slightly?" he asked incredulously, violet eyes wide and disbelieving.

Shifty eyes darted to their intertwined hands and Sango shrugged. "You still shouldn't have left her alone."

"I didn't."

"Huh?"

"Sesshoumaru-san came over, I left her with him," Miroku said blithely, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Sango repressed the urge to slap him, it was hard... very hard but she managed it. "Do you want them to destroy the apartment? Baka!"

Miroku put his hands on her shoulders calmingly, keeping her in her seat as she tried to spring into action. "It's okay, they'll be fine," he promised cheerfully.

"Agh! You don't know that," she pointed out, tossing her long brown hair behind her shoulder angrily.

"Nope, but I do know that if we leave now we can arrive at Kitchō in time to make good on my reservations," he wrangled, waggling his eyebrows persuasively. It was, after all, supposed to be their date night and Kagome was being looked after by Sesshoumaru...

Brown eyes grew large and awestruck and Miroku celebrated a victory as she hesitantly uttered, "I suppose it will be okay..."

"Of course it will, Sango my love!"

It was a contentedly full but decidedly guilty Sango that opened the door to the apartment that night. Miroku had wrangled them an impossible-to-get table at one of the classiest restaurants in Tokyo and she'd been out wining and dining whilst her best friend was ill and practically being held hostage in her own home by the vile Sesshoumaru.

When she set foot in the living room however, her misconceptions flew out the window and she stared, awestruck, at the cuddling couple snoozing sedately on the sofa.

Miroku, equally shocked yet still in control of his jaw unlike the slack jawed Sango, chuckled slightly. "Well, I have to say I wasn't expecting that of all the scenarios we could have come home to... and look! The apartment is still intact!"

"Yeah," a stunned Sango uttered hollowly.

Miroku tilted his head to one side, inspecting the lethargic couple. Sesshoumaru's hair fanned across Kagome's body in a possessive waterfall of silver strands, strong arms supported her as she lay across him with one hand capturing her hip proprietarily and the other clutching her shoulder. She'd curled up, cat-like in his lap her legs were tucked in between them, a hand curled around his collar and her face hidden in his neck.

"They look... well... I have the strangest compulsion to take a picture of them," Miroku tapped his chin thoughtfully, "maybe because they look..." he paused here pursing his lips as he tried to come up something, "cute?"

Miroku seemed unsatisfied with his chosen adjective and frowned wrinkling his nose.

"Be grateful I do not kill, human, for insinuating that I am anything but deadly," the hissed words came from Sesshoumaru, who still had his eyes closed with the same sedate expression; nothing hinted that he had even spoken but that cold tone could belong to no other.

Had he even been asleep in the first place?

Cat-like golden eyes opened into slits, the intensity of the orbs making them glow in the half-light of the impending dusk.

"Um... Sesshoumaru-san I was just—" Miroku began but trailed off when he realised he really didn't have an excuse for calling the demon 'cute', he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-san, for looking after Kagome while we were away," Sango filled in for her boyfriend quickly, bowing stiffly.

Sesshoumaru quirked a brow. "Babysitting is no great inconvenience," he drawled, "but..." he paused ominously, glowing eyes pinning them piercingly, "you owe me."

Shaky, sporadic nodding followed as the two humans picked up on the menace laced within his tone.

Sensuous lips curled into a smirk. "I'm glad we understand each other."


	29. Secret Doctor

Title: Secret Doctor

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Nerve [drabble#90]

Words: 200

Rating: T

Warnings: None.

Summary: Sesshoumaru discovers the cause of Kagome's delirium.

Being used as a footrest, a slave and a pillow by a sick and delirious Kagome had given Sesshoumaru insight into his forgotten nuance of patience. The girl who was currently draped across his lap like a human blanket was fussing all over him, playing with his hair and nagging him about wanting to braid it.

Sesshoumaru had become nursemaid to Kagome; her medicine induced delirium coupled with her continual tugging of his long hair was slowly grating against his last nerve.

"Very well, you may plait it," he relented, submitting to her questing fingers as they divided and sectioned off his long silken hair into manageable strands.

Habitually, Sesshoumaru pressed the back of his hand to her pale forehead to check her fever, her cheeks were blushing rosy and the flu that she had contracted at him was still battling with her body.

"Medicine time, Kagome," he wheedled, anticipating the mulish reaction.

The temper tantrum she proceeded to throw exasperated but did not disappoint.

Finally convincing her to take her daily dosage, he frowned in recognition at the doctor's signature.

"Totosai-sensei?"

"You know my doctor?"

"Only Totosai could prescribe this insufferable medicine."

He'd kill the old coot for this.


	30. Secret Vengeance

Title: Secret Vengeance

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Bold [drabble#92]

Rating: T

Genre: Humour

Summary: Sesshoumaru enacts revenge on Kagome's part.

The one responsible for the drugs that had caused Kagome's delirium had been destined to meet a sticky end by Sesshoumaru's claws ever since the demon had been tasked with caring for the sickly, delirious, Miko, but the fact that the doctor behind the drugs was Totosai had Sesshoumaru _smiling_.

Kagome had been prised from him and succumbed to a healing sleep, and now Sesshoumaru was on the warpath.

Totosai blinked as his office door was flung open, revealing Sesshoumaru, who tossed the medicine-bottle at the bold fool's head.

"Repent for what you did to _us_."

Totosai balked, "Who, me?"


	31. Secret Lapdog

Title: Secret Lapdog  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Hook [drabble#93]  
Words: 400  
Genre: Romance Humour  
Rating: T  
Warnings: None.  
Summary: Kagome is recovering from her illness, with a little help from Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru sighed morosely as he realised that, despite always being in control of everything, he was now bending to Kagome's every whim. This was probably why he'd agreed to look after the recovering – yet still sickly – woman whilst her friends had gone visiting parents.

She was a little better, the demon disease he had unwittingly infected her with was stubbornly persisting though, and she'd been taking the ridiculous pain medication less frequently. So, between bouts of being completely loopy, she teetered on the edge of being entirely cantankerous. Normal.

Right now, he was waiting expectantly for her pain medication to kick in as she huffed and wriggled on the sofa; wrapped in her green duvet she looked like a giant caterpillar.

As her smile grew more vacant and her eyes more peaceful, he braced himself for the inevitable onslaught of Deranged Kagome. Damn Totosai for prescribing demon strength pain-medication.

"Sesshoumaru," she grumbled, peering up owlishly at the reticent demon lord from over the arm of her sofa.

"Yes?" he asked, folding his arms, suspicious of any shenanigans.

"I'm hot," she grumbled, going cross-eyed as she glared at the curl resting in the middle of her forehead.

"You are feverish," he corrected.

"Can I have a bath?" she questioned, blue eyes fixing him with a pleading gaze.

"Can you?" he asked mordantly.

Hissing at him, she tried to get up and fell with a plop back onto the sofa. "Nope, legs don't work today."

"Of course," he muttered, swooping down on the woman and lifting her over his shoulder.

She giggled but nearly staggered over when he abruptly tipped her right way up and let go.

Catching her elbow resignedly, he gestured to the bathtub. "There. Don't drown yourself."

Leaving the bathroom, affording her some modesty, he traversed the small apartment to her kitchen to make himself some tea. Halfway through the ritual of making the tea, his ears caught a muffled, garbled sound of outrage, and he made his way to the bathroom to make sure she hadn't drowned herself.

Expecting disaster, he was amused to find it was not the case, somehow, Kagome had managed to get her long hair caught in the hook of her bra clasp, whilst she was still wearing it, and so she was stuck, head bent backwards to bare her neck, flailing helplessly.

Brusquely disentangling her hair, he deadpanned, "Bad luck must follow you."


	32. Secret Tête à Tête

Title: Secret _Tête à Tête_

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Powder [oneshot#47]

Words: 2,048

Genre: Romance, Humour.

Rating: T

Warnings: None.

Summary: Kagome's relative visits and imparts a few home truths on Sesshoumaru... whether he wants them or not.

With shrewd eyes, Sesshoumaru watched Kagome strive to achieve normality. She was wearing a light rose summer dress that flirted around her knees and boasted a modest neckline. But he was busy paying attention to her temperature, the flush of her cheeks, the manner in which she carried herself, was she really well now after such a long – and painful – illness?

Sensing scepticism, Kagome turned to alleviate it. "Honestly, I'm fine," she vowed, "I'll even be able to go to work on Monday."

"Hn." He'd believe that when he saw it.

Mulishly, Kagome folded her arms under her breasts and wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't 'hn' me!"

Resisting the urge to do just that, Sesshoumaru gazed languidly out of the apartment window at the sweltering Tokyo beyond it. The temperature was broiling and the light breeze provided by the fan in the far corner of Kagome's sitting room did nothing to alleviate the humidity of the small room.

Brow puckering, Kagome shivered, clasping her bare upper arms with her hands. It felt like something was coming, something not so good.

Unaware of the attention her unusual reaction had garnered from her guest, she tilted her head to one side, stared vacantly at a potted plant and tried to recall how long she had been ill exactly. It took a moment of mental arithmetic, at which she was not exactly brilliant, before she panicked and dashed to the wall calendar, skidding a little in her slippers.

One finger traced a path through the weeks and she tapped a square that had been outlined in red pen with abject horror.

"No way," she muttered to herself, tossing a harassed look at the ticking clock that proclaimed it to be half past eleven.

Irked at being ignored and dismissed, Sesshoumaru traversed the cluttered living room to Kagome's side. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's today!" she lamented shrilly, sprinting from the room into the kitchen where she hastily stacked the dishes back into the cupboard before dashing into the living room to straighten the sofa and plump the cushions.

Her words didn't explain much of anything, except that something she was apparently unprepared for was happening today. Whatever it was...

"Cease your twittering and explain, woman," Sesshoumaru commanded dangerously as she scurried past him holding a feather duster aloft.

"No time for explaining," Kagome dismissed the time-wasting notion and attacked her wonky lampshades, righting them hastily.

A restraining hand wrapped itself around her elbow and she ground to a halt, glaring at Sesshoumaru.

"Explain," he demanded.

"Aunt Bea is coming here, today, for her annual visit," Kagome hastily explained, tugging on her arm but failing to extricate herself from his iron grasp, "and if she sees my apartment in such a state she'll disown me!"

"Of that, there is no doubt," a haughty voice intoned, causing Kagome to freeze wide-eyed where she stood.

"Bea?" Kagome spun around jerkily to blink dumbly at the woman in the doorway, twirling Miroku's keys on one elegant finger tipped with an infallible French manicure.

"I let myself in," the blonde explained, allowing an expensive cashmere jacket to slide from her shoulders, "your flat mate... that charming, groping man... Miroku, was so kind as to lend me his keys."

Underneath the coat Bea was dressed in understated yet expensive garments that seemed to be tailor made. At around fifty, she exuded a grace and poise that Kagome obviously hadn't inherited. Her accent had the faintest English lilt and it was obvious from her platinum blond hair and sparkling blue eyes that she was not native Japanese. But the eyes were perfectly replicated in Kagome's face.

Though Kagome's eyes were less shrewd and more innocent.

"You live in a sty, Kagome," the woman admonished, sweeping dirty plates into the sink with proprietary intent before turning her gimlet stare upon Sesshoumaru.

Topaz eyes narrowed as the demon glowered back at this woman and Kagome hopped from foot to foot anxiously as they engaged in silent battle.

"And you are?" Bea prodded, one brow crooking as she rested an elegant elbow on the kitchen unit beside her.

"I could ask you the same," Sesshoumaru needled, chin tilting upwards in a superior manner.

"Please! You two! Stop sizing each other up," Kagome pleaded, glancing between them exasperatedly, "Aunt Bea, this is Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru, my Aunt Bea."

Bea was the first to break eye contact, though she did it with an air of majesty and arrogance that spoke volumes about her exuberantly unstoppable character. It was clear in the smug lilt to her smile that she felt she had won the standoff, Sesshoumaru's scowl rang true with that assessment.

"Well," Bea trotted to Kagome's side to peck a kiss on each of her cheeks, Kagome returning the favour and pressing kisses to Bea's own powdered cheeks, "You look a little peaky darling."

Kagome shuffled her slippers against the kitchen tiles uneasily. "Yeah, I'm recovering from a demon flu virus."

Sesshoumaru sneered as Bea tossed him a scathing look; she'd obviously assumed he was responsible for Kagome's illness. This woman was already rubbing him the wrong way. Ever quick to make judgements, Sesshoumaru had already relegated her to his list of people who habitually got on his nerves.

"Oh dear," she mollycoddled; smoothing Kagome's hair and fluffing it in a preening manner that made Kagome squirm and wrinkle her nose, "how are you now?"

This simple inquisitor statement into Kagome's well being seemed ambiguous enough, but the penetrating stare that Bea then treated her too was anything but simple polite courtesy. Kagome gulped uneasily and nodded frantically, unable to disengage eye contact.

"Fine!"

"Fine is superfluous," Bea chided, twirling a golden strand of hair around her finger, "people use it even when they are the exact opposite of well," she huffed.

"Then... I'm feeling a lot better," Kagome hedged, beaming as her Aunt smirked at her.

"Marvellous!" Bea enthused, "then, we will have to have a little _Tête à Tête_ in our restaurant tonight... right now I have to have my hair trimmed," she thrilled, tossing her hair over her should happily.

"The usual place?" Kagome confirmed.

"Yes... at, say, half seven," Bea agreed happily, watching as Kagome scrawled it down on her wall calendar.

Sesshoumaru stiffened when Bea turned to him in a blasé manner. Appearing for all the world as if she had forgotten his presence because he was, to her, insignificant. He almost growled at that, he was not insignificant he was Sesshoumaru.

"Ah, yes, you," she sniffed haughtily, "you may come too."

"Such a reluctant offer doesn't persuade me," Sesshoumaru uttered contemptuously.

Bea winked at the ornery Daiyokai. "But you will go because she'll be there," she indicated, eyes shrewd.

Sesshoumaru sneered and Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes to the heavens, silently pleading for some kind of help.

"You are arrogant, prideful of your own musings," Sesshoumaru dismissed Bea, his chin tilting stubbornly.

"I'm also right," she chuckled, "you'll be there."

Sesshoumaru scowled darkly as he tucked Kagome's hand into the crook of his elbow and led her into the low lit classy restaurant she'd showed him, that was squirreled away in the middle of nowhere.

He hated the fact that he was proving the insufferable Bea right by turning up, but he couldn't resist.

The music was understated and elegant, the ambiance cosy and relaxing, overall Sesshoumaru believed he would return here at a later date. But, with a glance to the wine list, he realised it was not cheap per say.

"You can afford to eat here?" he enquired softly in Kagome's ear as the proficient maître d' led them through the throngs of tables.

"Bea can," Kagome corrected, not taking offense at his callous manner towards her lack of money. She knew he was ridiculously rich and she was getting by, she also knew that she'd never be able to eat here unless Bea was in town. Realism never lied.

"What does she do for a living?" he enquired as he pulled her chair out for her.

"She... dabbles," Kagome evaded the question, tucking her loose curls behind her ears.

"Dabbles?" he niggled, unwilling to allow her to escape his questioning.

"She's my dad's sister," Kagome explained, "and in the Greenwood side of the family –"

"Your name is Higurashi," he interrupted.

"I hadn't noticed," she quipped dryly, folding her cotton napkin into folds like it was a fan, "My mother kept her name – because I did live in Higurashi shrine – and we took hers because dad wanted us to fit in when we went to school."

"Hn."

"Anyway, on the Greenwood side of the family the blue eyes are a prominent feature," she continued, splaying her fingers under her eyes to indicate her blue orbs, "and there's kind of a belief that they are an indicator of... precognition."

She closed her eyes at this point, fingers knitting together anxiously in her lap. She prayed he wouldn't wonder if she had the gift. She never wanted him to pick up on her little... sideline income of predicting futures for paying customers and businessmen who enjoyed having an edge in the business market.

"So your Aunt can... see the future?" he was sceptical, his voice was saturated in doubt.

"Sort of," Kagome shrugged, "she dabbles in stocks and shares... she's quite good actually – made herself a small fortune."

"Hn," he scoffed, "and you?"

She blushed brightly. "I just have a very high awareness of impending doom," she placated him.

"Kagome!" Bea thrilled as she reached their table in an opulent flourish of expensive overcoat and subtle perfume. Her newly trimmed hair glittered magnificently and curled gently about her collar bone.

"Bea!" Kagome grinned happily as her Aunt claimed the seat next to her own.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, merely glowering at the woman. Though his eyes widened in astonishment as, minutes later, she caught a glass that fell from the passing waitress' tray whilst batting nary an eyelid.

The water sloshed inside and she grinned toothily.

The unlikely trio leant back in their seats a little while later, bellies full, appetites sated and lethargy taking hold of them.

"Are you guys going to kill each other if I leave you two alone?" Kagome enquired, glancing between them dubiously, "because I have to go to the bathroom."

"We will be fine," Bea assured, patting Kagome's hand softly.

"Sure," Kagome acquiesced hesitantly; deciding to return quickly to make sure nobody maimed anybody.

Bea's astute eyes tracked Kagome's retreating for as she disappeared into the bathroom and waited until the door closed behind her before she turned to face the dog demon.

"So, dog," Bea began, hands clasped under her chin, elbows resting on the table, "in place of my older brother I feel obliged to ask, what are your intentions with my niece?"

"I have no intentions, she is merely amusing," Sesshoumaru harrumphed, looking away from the irksome woman.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" she baited, eyes narrowing.

"I need to convince no one of the truth," he barked, eyes shooting Bea a sidelong glare.

"Sure," she niggled, rolling her eyes, "and so you looked after her whilst she was ill out of..."

"Duty."

"Of course," she shrugged, trying to dispel the tension that his affronted glares were causing, "It couldn't be that, on the way, in the midst of the teasing and the baiting and the niggling, you've begun to see her as more than _amusement_?"

Bea spat the word amusement as if it were a curse word and Sesshoumaru's glare intensified.

"You are ridiculous," he dismissed the woman haughtily.

"No, you are the ridiculous one."

"You two!" Kagome chastened, scampering back to the table side, a blush dusted across her cheeks, "you're disrupting everyone else."

Their heated words had indeed incurred an agog crowd and Sesshoumaru slouched in his chair and sulked.

"It was her."

"Pup," Bea needled waspishly.

"You guys!" Kagome groaned.

Bidding Kagome and the dog farewell, Bea folded herself gracefully into a taxi and slipped her phone from a pocket of her coat.

"Keiko-chan? It's me, Bea. Do you remember when you said you owed me for life? Well... I need a little favour," there was a pause as Bea chortled, "no, nothing illegal... _this_ time."


	33. Secretly Stunned

Title: Secretly Stunned

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Towel [drabble#97]

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Comedy

Words: 200

Summary: Kagome is surprised to see Sesshoumaru.

Laundry was relaxing, methodical, and helped Kagome piece together flustered thoughts on the subject of Sesshoumaru. She was pinning bedding and towels outside in her tiny little balcony, creating a curtain of white, primping and straightening and pegging with meticulous intent.

The scent of her washing powder had always soothed her and she began to hum gently in time with the thrumming purrs of Sango's cat who lazed in the sun.

Sesshoumaru was being nicer to her than ever before, condescending remarks were slowly becoming gentle teasing. It was both welcome and unsettling. Hopefully the unease in her belly would settle into familiarity, possibly only time would tell.

Peg in mouth, Kagome stood on tiptoes as she attempted to peg up the last corner of her bath towel, yelping in dismay as a gust of wind stole her peg and sent her towel tumbling after.

"Dang," she uttered, tossing an exasperated look at the cat, "that was my favourite towel."

"Woman, desist throwing towels," Sesshoumaru's opined, causing Kagome to scoot back from the edge of the balcony in fright.

Perched loftily atop his youki cloud, he offered her the towel.

"Thanks... why are you here?"

"Just flying by."

"Right, obviously."


	34. Secret Eavesdroppers

By happy coincidence, Jakotsu and Bankotsu had entered the lift at the same time and spent the journey to their office floor chatting companionably about high heels. Bankotsu, flaunting his perfectionism at cross-dressing, had purchased a daring pair of red stilettos and was seeking reassurance that he didn't look too trampy.

As they reached the office door, the sound of an argument dissuaded them from venturing inside.

"No way, Sesshoumaru, like hell that'll fit in there!" Kagome protested, there was a strangled noise, like a puppy that had caught its tail in a door, "that hurt!"

"Hold still, it's your own fault for moving too much," Sesshoumaru's normally cool voice sounded strained.

"Well I can't help being nervous!" she snapped back angrily.

"It will be fine, don't worry over something so trivial."

"It is not trivial!" she exclaimed, there was a squealing noise, like a palm sliding over glass and Kagome hissed, "you're being too tough!"

"I am not being rough, merely forceful," Sesshoumaru corrected tersely.

"Ah! No don't push it back in, pull it out!" Kagome yelled.

By this time Bankotsu and Jakotsu wore matching aghast expressions as they pressed closer to the closed door, inadvertently managing to force the office door open.

The two stunned men fell into the room and nearly tripped over each other as they tried to backpedal, only to halt at the sight of Sesshoumaru and Kagome.

They were both bent over the copier, Sesshoumaru with his hand wrapped around a wad of paper that seemed to be causing a blockage, Kagome knelt next to him, rubbing her bruised hip where Sesshoumaru had accidentally elbowed her.

"What?" Kagome enquired curiously, looking from one stupefied face to another.

Bankotsu muttered, "Absolutely nothing."

Jakotsu pouted. "My expectations were quashed!"

"You fools have overactive imaginations," Sesshoumaru quipped.


	35. Secret Confidant

Title: Secret Confidant  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Marathon [oneshot#48]  
Rating: T  
Words: 1,763  
Genre: Romance Humour  
Summary: Kagome encounters an old friend who maybe wants to be more than just friends much to Sesshoumaru's chagrin.

Carefully munching her odango so as not to get any crumbs on her shirt, Kagome swung her legs leisurely and surveyed the park from her perch on the wooden bench. Her bags filled with her new books and other purchases sat at her feet; she was resting her sore feet after a day of relaxing yet strenuous shopping. Blissful at the prospect of her new cooking books and the perfectly cute Hello Kitty ear buds to replace the ones that Miroku had pilfered and subsequently lost, she hummed under her breath as she people-watched leisurely.

It was the pleasant time between summer and autumn when the weather was warm without being stifling and Kagome had already rid herself of the light jacket she'd previously been wearing. People would be everywhere in the park soon, but it was still early enough that the crowds were light, well... as light as they could be in Tokyo.

Finishing her odango, she threw her napkin into the bin beside her and grinned as she got it in with one shot.  
The padding of jogging feet roused Kagome from her daydream and she glanced up in time to see a small gaggle of middle aged women jog past, giggling and gossiping. Jogging and running in the park at this time was popular.

"Higurashi Kagome-san?" a polite, strangely familiar voice intoned softly, causing Kagome to glance over her shoulder at the man jogging on the spot behind the bench she sat on. His red eyes surveyed her speculatively, his long black hair was swept into a plat that ended at his lower back and his tanned strong legs were revealed by the loose blue shorts.

"Do I know you?" she ventured tentatively, tucking an errant strand of wavy ebony hair behind her ear.

He smiled cheekily and pushed a hand through the tendrils of loose hair that fell into his face. "Yep, you're definitely Higurashi Kagome-san," he affirmed, "innocently unassuming as always. I'm Kinomoto Hiten, we met when we were children."

Kagome blinked in shock and then paused as memories attempted to resurface. "Ah! Your mother, wasn't she a friend of my Aunt Bea? Kinomoto Keiko-san, she ran the bakery?"

"Good memory," he praised, "do you remember how you used to come visit the bakery for your mother every day. If I remember correctly, Strawberry mochi were your favourite."

Kagome smiled in remembrance. "Yeah, and you were the errand boy, always running out for deliveries."

"Never stopped running really," he acknowledged, calmly performing some stretches.

"Oh, did I interrupt your run?" Kagome asked, abashed that she had been delaying him.

"Nah, I'm just training for the marathon next week," he shrugged blithely.

She giggled. "So I guess you really did never stop running." She crossed her legs and smiled up at him, tilting her head to one side.

"Nope," he admitted, "I run my mother's bakery now, since she became ill again, but I'm always running for charities and such."

Her lips quirked. "Are you going for sainthood Kinomoto-san?"

It was true, he did charity work, looked after his sick mother's bakery, was in good shape, was charming and he could obviously cook to be able to run the bakery. He was the definition of a perfect catch.

Probably, she should have been all doe eyed, her heart should have been going _doki-doki_ and she probably should be clamouring to get his phone number...

So why wasn't she?

"Call me Hiten, Kagome-chan," he implored, invading her personal space inch by inch.

Too stunned to move, she merely blinked up at Hiten as he pulled a strand of her hair away from where it had stuck to her glossy lips. She blushed automatically, hands going up to her cheeks to hide instinctively.

"We should catch up," he recommended, grinning at her dumbfounded look, "can I have your number?"

Numbly, she handed over her phone and he smirked at the jangling charms that hung from it. "Hello Kitty, huh?"

Slightly chagrined, she blushed again and shrugged. "Who doesn't like a cute cat?" she demanded.

"I suppose," he allowed, deftly typing as he entered his number into her phone's address book. With an ease that surprised her, he'd swapped numbers and trapped hers within his phone with a jaunty half-grin.

Catching the phone awkwardly as he tossed it to her, she nursed it in the crook of her elbow and smiled at him, the sunlight highlighting the warm brown notes in her ebony hair.

"I look forward to catching up with you," he smiled as he prepared to continue on with his running excursion.

Waving in a slightly dumbstruck manner, Kagome watched him until he rounded the corner and smiled indulgently; it would be nice to properly catch up with Hiten.

Sliding her bags onto one elbow and folding her jacket over her other arm, she headed back in the direction of her apartment.

Taking the short cut through the little wooded area of the park and ignoring the way her shoes slipped on the uneven path, she pressed at her stomach, feeling slightly apprehensive for some reason; there were butterflies in her belly again.

_Something's here.___

_Feels like... Sesshoumaru?_

Twirling as she felt the first flickers of youki prickle against her spine, she shrieked as she lost her footing entirely and slid down off the little path. Crashing through the bushes, her hair snagging in low hanging branches, she skidded on her knees into a small dell.

The dell was idyllic in construct, enclosed form the noise of the outside city by a wall of towering trees and dense shrubbery; Tokyo's oasis.

A small tree stump sat in the centre and perched on the tree stump, in the lotus position with his hair pulled back into a thick braid, was Sesshoumaru.

Magenta stripes were clear across his closed eyes and his peaceful expression was beguiling. He was dressed in a white shirt that hadn't been buttoned entirely, exposing the lithe muscles of his chest, but she wrenched her eyes away.

Pressing a steadying, scolding, hand to her heart, she tried to quell the treacherous palpitations. _There's the doki-doki_. The fact that he made her heart beat faster wasn't as annoying as it probably should have been and she worried at the thawing of her resistance to Sesshoumaru.

"How long are you going to continue gawking at me?" he intoned, making her flinch though his voice was calm as the surface of a summer lake.

"I wasn't gawking," she scolded, picking herself from the grass and checking to make sure her purchases were still intact, scowling at the grass stains on her jeans.

One golden eye cracked open and he scoured her form. "You look... bedraggled," he purred.

"Thanks," she bit out dryly.

His nose twitched slightly and the other eye opened so that he could pin her with a gimlet stare. "You scent carries the undertone of a male," his voice was softly deadly.

"So?" she tossed her hair over her shoulder, cursing when the flamboyant gesture was quashed by the leaf that had managed to get lodged in her hair.

"You should know by know that only I may play with you," he uttered, chest rising and falling rhythmically as he breathed, eyes closing languidly once again.

Being claimed in a roundabout way as his was equal parts flattering and irksome. Did he merely find her little human reactions funny? Was this why he was teasing her?

Well two could play at that game and she was ready to give him a run for his money. Surely it wasn't fair for her to always lose to him?

Hiten's smiling visage flashed through her mind and she frowned, her eyebrows knitting together to form a small crease in the middle of her forehead.

"Yeah, well, Hiten-san would never play with a person," she stomped her foot, gritting her teeth somewhat at her childish actions, "And since when am I yours?" Her left eyebrow twitched as his calm and collected  
demeanour served to ignite her anger.

"Since I decided you would be," he asserted, his face a mask of tranquillity whilst his emotions flared out of control turbulently. His possessive instincts surprised him and he was fighting to repress them and remain stoic.

"Well, I never signed in for this deal," she growled, stalking towards the edge of the dell to escape his infuriating presence.

"Do as you will," he returned softly. She clenched her hands into fists behind her back, fighting the urge to yank on a piece of his stupid shiny hair. That would be foolish and she'd already managed to make the most spectacularly ridiculous entrance that was humanly possible.

When this annoyed for a reason that was probably frivolous, Kagome did the only thing she could do; she left.  
Softly pointed demon ears listened intently as she stomped away and, when the sound of infuriated female footfalls had dissipated.

"Hiten? Hm..." Golden eyes flicked open to glare at the sky. "Perhaps a little dismembering is in order..."

"Is that wise, young one?" an amused voice intoned, leaves rustling in a sudden warm breeze.

"You would do well to keep your opinions to yourself, Bokensu," Sesshoumaru bit out tersely.

The old tree chortled heartily. "If you did not wish for my counsel, you should not have come to my dell, young one."

Sesshoumaru's lips pursed in consternation and one golden eye opened languidly. "Meditation was my purpose."

"There are quieter places," Bokensu interjected, ruffling his branches, "places where I am not."

"Hn..." This time both of Sesshoumaru's eyes opened to half-mast. "Ulterior motives cannot be denied."

"What ails you?" Bokensu asked, his voice soothing and lined with age.

"Secrets of Kagome," Sesshoumaru muttered.

Bokensu chuckled. "It is a woman's prerogative to keep secrets Sesshoumaru."

"It is deceptive."

"Why not speak your mind. Your father is much the same in this aspect, you wish to know all of her, you wish to possess her as any Inu would, but your attitude is not helping matters."

"Such counsel loses its worth when it is delivered by shrubbery," Sesshoumaru scoffed, nose upturned at the insinuation that he was at fault.

"I would doff my cap to you, Sesshoumaru, if indeed I had one, as your arrogance and highhandedness is second to none."

"Hn," Sesshoumaru shut his eyes again, "It is merely confidence, nothing more. And I am confident enough to  
know that this unknown male will be of little consequence."

"Of course..." Bokensu tittered wryly, "yet, if you are truly unconcerned, why go through the trouble of dismembering him?"

"I am... thorough."


	36. Secretly Doomed

Title: Secretly Doomed

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Slip [drable#96]

Words: 100

Genre: Romance Comedy

Rating: T

Summary: Sesshoumaru stalks his prey, possessive instincts are challenged.

Kagome's little slip, allowing the name of her potential suitor to pass her lips, had been Sesshoumaru's boon. He'd soon located Hiten, irked to discover how much of a 'catch' he really was. Running his mother's bakery dotingly, Hiten entranced the female patrons inoperably.

Such charm, chivalry and caring were faucets of Sesshoumaru's personality that were rarely implemented but this man exuded them in abundance.

Women fell easily to his charms, though he was of meagre power for a Yokai, and Sesshoumaru refused to believe Kagome would be swayed as easily.

When possessive, Sesshoumaru was lethal.

And _Hiten_ was doomed.


	37. Secret Sweet Tooth

Title: Secret Sweet Tooth

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Triple [drabble#97]

Rating: T

Words: 400

Genre: Humour, Romance

Summary: Kagome develops a sweet tooth and Sesshoumaru reveals he doesn't share too well.

A/N: For Rowdy, I know it's a bit late, but have a good birthday!

Sango crooked a brow as Kagome bounced into the apartment, arms laden heavily with sweet treats packaged in a light primrose confectionary box that was tied with a twirling ribbon.

The pink tinged cheeks and the smile that was suffused with pleasure had lingered on Kagome's countenance all week and Sango was beginning to get suspicious.

"What's that?" Sango asked, joining her friend in the kitchen.

"Hm?" Kagome blinked in surprise at Sango, "Oh, this? It's kasutera cake."

She opened the box to reveal the two neat slices and deftly arranged them onto two china plates for Sango and herself.

Snagging the packaging, Sango examined the label proclaiming it to have come from '_The Kinomoto Bakery_'.

"Kinomoto?" Sango hummed, rolling the name around in her mouth, "where have I heard that recently?"

"Ah, it's Hiten-kun's mother's bakery," Kagome admitted bashfully.

"So your new boyfriend is responsible for my intake of triple the recommended daily guidelines of sugar each day?" Sango needled teasingly.

Kagome's brows furrowed innocently. "I have no idea what you mean!" she protested, "Hiten-kun and I are just catching up!"

"Hm, Hiten-_kun_, eh?" Sango niggled before tackling her slice of cake heaven, ignoring Kagome's flustered expression, "Sounds intimate."

"Sango-chan!" Kagome pouted.

Shrugging unrepentantly, Sango muttered, "At least the cake is good."

Sesshoumaru was not amused. He watched with dark eyes as Kagome half-skipped down the street to that infernal bakery that she visited every day after work.

Being shunned for a lesser male was unacceptable.

He would not allow such blasphemy.

"Kagome," he called, catching her arm as she attempted to duck into the bakery.

"What do you want?" she demanded, glowering at him.

"Undivided attention," he crooned, invading her personal space so that he was whispering in her ear.

"How old are you?" she grumbled, trying to extract her arm from his nefarious grip.

"I'm Inu, therefore I'm possessive of what is mine. And you, my little toy, are mine."

"I'm not yours," she bit out, mortified as a gaggle of school girls passed them and wondered if they were a couple.

"But the rise in your heartbeat says otherwise," he murmured, nipping her earlobe between deadly fangs and making her squeak in surprise, "does he cause you to feel this way?"

Finding strength in her embarrassment, she shoved him away. "Of course he does!"

"Who are you trying to convince?" he inquired mockingly, "me, or you?"


	38. Secretly Plotting

Title: Secretly Plotting  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: I.O.U. [oneshot#49]  
Genre: Humour Romance  
Words: 1,279  
Rating: T  
Summary: Sesshoumaru is plotting but how long can he keep Kagome in the dark?

Fingers paused in their typing and hovered over laptop keys as a shiver ran down Sango's spine. Miroku, noting the pause in the furious typing of his girlfriend, glanced up to see her fidgeting uncomfortably.

"What is it?" Miroku asked concernedly, carefully folding his newspaper and resting his coffee against it.

They were sat outside their local cafe, basking in the Sunday afternoon sunshine, half hearted as the sun was, drinking coffee and, in Sango's case, attempting to catch up on her hectic schedule on her laptop.

"Feels like..." she paused to shut her laptop warily, "trouble."

"You have no idea how right you are," Sesshoumaru uttered, materialising beside Sango in a feat that was downright disconcerting.

"Sesshoumaru-san!" Miroku half-yelped, knocking his coffee over with his elbow and glumly watching it saturate his once pristine copy of the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's little under-pressure-calamity, Sango twisted in her seat to look up at the demon stood behind her, golden eyes narrowed.

"Can we help you?" she asked tentatively, knowing of his arrogant mannerisms second hand from Kagome made her cautious; she had a bad feeling that this wasn't going to end well for her.

"I have come here to collect," Sesshoumaru announced, "you do remember relegating me to babysitting a delirious Kagome, don't you?"

Nervous glances were swapped and hesitantly they both nodded.

"You've come to collect on an I.O.U.?" Miroku ventured.

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru nodded, pleased that they had caught on so quickly, he had very little patience for fools.

"What do you want?" Sango asked, eyes narrowing distrustfully and rightly so; Sesshoumaru was in a devious mood.

"Give me your key," he commanded, tossing his hair back behind his shoulder in a move that made the shop waitress swoon slightly.

"Key?" Sango repeated in bemusement, tilting her head to one side.

"To your apartment," Sesshoumaru clarified impatiently, resisting the urge to tap his foot in annoyance.

Fierce hazel eyes clashed with calculating golden orbs and the air between them fizzled with an undercurrent of hostility.

"Why?" Miroku intervened, interrupting the non-verbal standoff and placing a restraining hand on Sango's shoulder.

"My reasons are my own," Sesshoumaru sniffed haughtily, turning his chin up at Sango. Miroku's grip subsequently became tighter as he tried to prevent his girlfriend from mauling the dog-demon.

With a strained smile, Miroku tried to diffuse the situation. "We trust that you will be an outstanding houseguest."

A silver brow quirked and Sesshoumaru snatched the proffered key with a haughty hair toss.

_Crafty human, asking for favours without actually asking._

The couple watched the demon stalk away with incredulous eyes.

"We are not telling Kagome that we gave him that key," Sango decided.

"Huh?"

"You remember Inuyasha's beads of subjugation?"

"Vividly."

"Think ten times worse."

Miroku winced. "Silence _is_ golden, after all."

"I'm glad we agree."

***

Phone sandwiched in between her shoulder and her ear, Kagome reached up towards the top shelf of her closet.  
Smirking in triumph as her fingers closed around the familiar feel of satin, she pulled the photo album down from its hiding nook.

The lavender coloured satin was her mother's preference, because it was previously her mother's album, but when Kagome had moved out she'd taken it with her as it was filled with childhood photographs. Her mother had called it a celebration of her childhood now that she was all grown up.

"I found it!" she spoke into the phone, grinning with reminiscence as she flicked through the photographs, dwelling nostalgically on the ones of her and Hiten playing outside his mothers bakery, climbing the  
Goshinboku at her family's shrine, crossing the stepping stones across the river...

"There's one with you when you went fishing that day," Kagome giggled, studying Hiten's massive pout in the photograph.

Hiten chuckled. "You mean the time I went on my own, without bate and caught nothing? Yeah I remember that."

"Your pout is cute," Kagome chuckled, "I think I'll bring these with me to the bakery the next time I go."

"And make me look a fool in front of my employees," Hiten surmised, "I'm sure that'll make them fear and respect me."

Giggling again and realising she sounded like an idiot, Kagome ended the call and went back to her previous task of watering the pot-plants that lived out on their apartment's little balcony.

Snagging her new Hello Kitty ear buds before she escaped out to try and bring her poor dehydrated plants back to life, she became immersed in her little potted-plant world, obscured from her apartment by the heavy linen  
drapes that covered the balcony door.

So far away was she in her little universe, that she didn't even notice the door to the apartment open and close, admitting a demon. Nor did she notice him pocket her roommate's key.

Poor oblivious Kagome.

Sesshoumaru, of course, realised that Kagome was out on her balcony instantaneously when he slipped into the apartment. Her off-key warbling was hard to ignore, but he rolled his eyes and made a mental note to never go to karaoke with her. Ever.

Sesshoumaru was possessive to a fault and, right now, his possession was playing at avoiding him. So, in order to protect her from a thunder demon who had no business sniffing round her, he had been forced to take drastic measures.

Those drastic measures included visiting a demonic shaman to acquire a ward that, as Sesshoumaru now discovered, fit snugly behind the ridge of the doorframe without being visible to anyone in the apartment.

Yes, that would do nicely.

Sesshoumaru did not share well, and this little ward would ensure that anyone with the ability to control lightning would not be able to enter Kagome's apartment.

Allowing himself a self-satisfied little smirk, Sesshoumaru left the apartment soundlessly.

Kagome shuddered violently and pushed the drape aside to peer into the apartment, wilted orchid in hand.

"_Little piggy, little piggy, let me in. Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin..._" Kagome frowned thoughtfully, "now why on earth did that pop into my head? If that was a premonition, I want my darned money back," she harrumphed, turning back to her parched plants, "stupid cryptic warnings..."

Outside the door, Sesshoumaru growled under his breath. "I am not a wolf; an Inu is much more terrifying..."

***

Peering over the top of her computer monitor, Kagome became affronted when Sesshoumaru turned his nose up at her and pouted.

Leaning in conspiratorially, she nudged Jakotsu. "What's wrong with Sesshoumaru?"

"Why are you asking me?" Jakotsu quirked a brow, "he's not _my_ lover."

"He's not mine either," Kagome rebuked, "but he is sulking."

Jakotsu became pensive. "Maybe because you've been paying too much attention to the Muffin Man," he ventured,  
waving his hand in a blasé manner.

Kagome stifled her laughter behind a legal pad. "Muffin Man? You can't seriously be calling Hiten-kun, the Muffin Man."

Jakotsu waved aside her exclamation and pulled her into his counsel. "Didn't you bring two bentō today?"

"Yeah, but one was for Hiten, we were supposed to be having lunch together."

"Cancel lunch and reconcile with the brooding puppy," Jakotsu advised, "home cooking might just be the way to his heart."

"Your presumption being that I can actually cook," she niggled, earning herself a shooing motion and a hair toss.

Sesshoumaru glanced up from his manuscript as a shadow fell over his desk. The proffered bentō box was a peace offering and it soothed his wounded pride at being neglected for a lesser demon and assuaged his niggling worry that she'd somehow figure out he'd been snooping in her apartment.

As he took it, she smiled. "You're welcome."


	39. Secret Conundrum

Title: Secret Conundrum  
Author: aimee_blue  
Rating: T  
Prompt: List [drabble#98]  
Genre: Romance humour  
Words: 200  
Summary: Kagome is asked for more than she wants to give and Sesshoumaru isn't much help.

Listlessly, Kagome prodded the sweet pumpkin-cake set in front of her with a pencil. The cake had been delivered to the office by Hiten's company. Her mobile began to vibrate and she swatted at it irritably.

"Hn..." Quick eyes had caught the caller ID and Sesshoumaru smirked, leaning his hip against the side of her desk, "Avoiding Hiten, are we?"

"No," she muttered petulantly, prodding the cake again.

"Are Hiten's cakes losing their appeal?" he mocked sliding the cake and the box into her bin with a vindictive flourish. "Or is Hiten merely becoming a bother?"

"I was going to eat that! And Hiten-kun is none of your business."

"Hn..."

Kagome had sworn she wouldn't tell him about what had transpired. 'Catching up' had turned into 'Let's go out' and Kagome wasn't entirely sure she wanted to date Hiten. She could probably compile a list of the reasons she _should_ date Hiten but that nefarious _something_was missing.

Grabbing her phone, Kagome glowered at Sesshoumaru. "Actually, I'm _going_ on a date with him!"

A brow was quirked. "To prove me wrong? That is the wrong reason to have a date, Kagome."

She ignored the niggling feeling that he was right.

* * *

A/N: I don't say this enough, but your reviews are lovely! In response to a question raised about Kagome's premonition musing last time, Sesshoumaru dismissed it as inane ramblings; he doesn't know about her gift... but for how much longer?


	40. Secretly Judging

Title: Secretly Judging

Author: aimee_blue

Rating: T

Prompt: driven [drabble#99]

Words: 300

Genre: Romance Humour

Summary: Sesshoumaru observes and judges

_Plebeian_, Sesshoumaru concluded as he watched Hiten escort Kagome, his slim baker's hand closing around her elbow proprietarily.

The movie tickets he waggled failed to impress their stoic observer. But the squeal of happiness it encouraged crinkled Sesshoumaru's brow.

_She is impressed by such... normality? Hnn..._

His spying was accidental. He simply happened to be sitting across the street from Hiten's bakery enduring some third-rate tea in an uncomfortable seat next to the window. It was purely coincidental.

Through the window, he caught a snatch of their conversation.

"You look beautiful, Kagome-chan."

"Not bad yourself," Kagome dimpled.

_Banal and boring pleasantries_, Sesshoumaru huffed, lips quirking as Hiten produced a small bouquet of daisies. _Cheap and Predictable_, he judged.

The mundane humdrum of the cheap tea shop was interspersed with the steady buzzing of a fly. Driven by boredom, he decided a little surveillance would be worthwhile. Not stalking, it was definitely not stalking.

The breathy sounding waitress presented him with a stiff bill considering the brew he had endured and he snagged the irritating fly from the air beside her head before leaving, just as a subtle reminder.

_I am a demon and a predator._

Slipping out in the middle of the dire romance film had been effortless and, donning her coat in the exit to the cinema, Kagome sighed gustily.

_Maybe Sesshoumaru was right but... pity dates are abysmal._

"Going somewhere?" Sesshoumaru goaded, coat tucked under his arm as he exited the little coffee shop adjacent to the cinema, "or did your date bore you so much you escaped?"

"Hiten is not boring!"

"Hnn."

"Is not!"

"Is too."

"Is not!" Kagome threw her hands into the air, "I'm going back inside, I was just getting some popcorn anyway."

Smirking, he pointed behind her, "Popcorn... which would be behind you."


	41. Secretly Imperfect

Title: Secretly Imperfect

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Parallel [oneshot#50]

Rating: T

Genre: Humour Romance

Words: 1,294

Summary: AU. Sesshoumaru tries to prove he is top dog.

A/N: I don't own the song '_Anything You Can Do_' but it was apt in this situation...

_Anything you can do I can do better... I can do anything better than you..._

Or so the song went, but Sesshoumaru was discovering that an unconquerable will to master something didn't mean he would necessarily be able to master it. In Sesshoumaru's life he had always been brilliant at everything he had tried his hand in, some tasks had required more practice, more patience and more care than others, but he'd yet to meet a challenge he could not surmount. Until this one.

He'd never considered the simple act of baking to be a challenge before it had become vital that he mastered it to assuage his damaged pride over the Hiten problem. The Yokai was running for sainthood and in his efforts to regain some of his bravado he was attempting to bake better than Hiten. But right now, he'd settle for being able to bake at all.

Kikyo had been surprisingly insightful when he'd demanded her cookbook, she didn't ask questions that he would have refused to answer and she pointed him towards some of the easier recipes, giving a practical demonstration of one or two recipes.

Now, armed with Kikyo's apron and in the comfort of his own kitchen, Kikyo's simplistic recipes suddenly didn't seem quite as easy.

The bold black marble kitchen counter was covered with failed attempts at a malady of cakes, all stuck to the bottom of their cake trays or burned into crisps and shrivelled up in the corner of cupcake cases. The black marble was decorated with splotches of cake mixture and speckles of slimy egg-whites and flour trails and Sesshoumaru could feel the grainy sugar crunch under his slippers whenever he moved.

It was truly a disaster. But Sesshoumaru had never failed at anything in such a manner before, and thusly he had no idea of when it was a good time to give up and call it a day.

Retreating into his bedroom, he tied his hair up on the top of his head and secured his sleeves properly at his elbows, ready to give his latest foe the trouncing he felt it so sorely deserved.

Setting out his stainless steel scales – that were now stained with odd gloopy cake mixture – he prepared to attempt the recipe once again, determined to best it.

A public display of dominance over the lightning demon would not be condoned, so Sesshoumaru was improvising. Though, what he wouldn't give to be able to force Hiten to submit to him in a fight, a feral grin curled his lips at the mere thought of making the baker yield to him. An offence that one could be arrested for perhaps, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.

However, practically he could not initiate such a fight and so he would prove his superiority to Kagome in this way. He had conquered insurmountable feats before, what was a little cake making in comparison?

Four hours and the contents of his entire pantry later and Sesshoumaru was ready to commit some form of murder or other carnage in order to vent some of the intense frustration he was feeling. It was as if the cakes were conspiring against him to drive him insane! All his hopes rested with this last cake; he had no more ingredients left, and no desire to go shopping – he didn't need to add to his already sky high stress levels.

All his other cakes had been watched beadily as they had cooked through the oven's glass door – but they'd still managed to burn somehow – so this one he was ignoring in the hope that without being watched over it might bloom into something miraculous.

It was hard accepting that he wasn't perfect at everything, so he simply refused to accept it.

The timer binged at him and hurried donning the oven gloves, he opened the oven door and snatched the baking tray from within as if terrified that the oven might eat the fruits of his labour.

The tray clattered onto the marble counter and Sesshoumaru inspected his losses with a critical eye.

_Burnt. Shrivelled. Didn't rise. Not enough mixture. Burnt. Not cooked at all._ His judgments were fair but not very uplifting and as he sneered at a gloop of cupcake mixture that had escaped its case and made a small tangent that looked like Italy, he deemed them useless.

About to toss them aside as he had all the others, he spotted it.

His diamond in the rough.

Hiding behind an ugly looking cupcake that was leaning on its side like it had a limp was his salvation.

A pristine, perfect, muffin stood on its lonesome, hidden by the ugly brutes that surrounded it.

With steady claws, Sesshoumaru plucked it from cake-purgatory and examined it carefully, sniffing to determine that it was both beautiful and edible.

It was.

The door chose that moment to swing open, Kagome clutching Inuyasha's spare key to her chest like a life line as she peered uncertainly into his apartment.

Spotting him amidst his earlier failed culinary disasters, she made her way over to him, noting the way her feet stuck to the sugar-coated floor.

"Kikyo-chan called me to tell me you'd borrowed her cookbook," Kagome explained her appearance as she examined a baking tray with interest, "What is that?"

"Hnn... a disaster," he acknowledged, glaring at the congealing mess with such malice that Kagome thought it ought to have bid a hasty retreat.

"Anyway, Inuyasha said he called and asked to borrow your car... and that you said yes," she continued, inspecting a mixing bowl with a connoisseur's eye, "you didn't add enough flour to that one," she corrected obliquely, before getting back to her point, "but you'd never let Inuyasha borrow your car... normally at least. So I decided to investigate."

Critical eyes narrowed in on the muffin Sesshoumaru was clutching protectively to his chest and she tilted her head, a smirk curving the corners of her lips.

"So... something did survive then?" she quipped, inspecting his wares critically before giving him the thumbs up.

Presenting it to her, he shrugged. "You may have it," he allowed, watching avidly as she scooped up the preferred offering and brought it to her lips. Biting into it with gusto, she made a mumbling noise of contentment as she ate, eyes rolling back in her head blissfully.

It was something of a perverse pride to see her enjoying that which he had made for her. Without her knowing, it appealed to his baser instincts to care for those he thought of as _his_.

Inwardly huffing, he decided he must be going soft.

"How was it?" he enquired seriously, stooping slightly so he could read her eyes.

Grinning roguishly, she wiped her fingers on his loaned apron. "Perfect," she told him seriously, before eyeing the failures dubiously, "which really doesn't explain all of those."

Sesshoumaru's attention had been captured by the crumbs that lingered on the corner of her mouth and, with something akin to reckless abandon, he swooped down and licked the offending crumbs away from her lips.

She blinked... then blushed and finally staggered backwards slightly, holding a hand to her lips. "Why'd you do that?" she squeaked, eyes large and disbelieving.

"I wanted a taste," he assured her, eyes sparkling in a dangerous manner that seemed to draw Kagome in.

"I'm dating with Hiten-kun!" she reminded him sternly, "you shouldn't do things like that!"

Faintly affronted by her accusations, he leant back against the kitchen counter and studied her with haughty golden eyes. "I know."

She jerked as though startled and eyed him suspiciously. "Why did you do that then?"

"I wanted a taste," he reiterated, "and so I acquired one."

"Pig!"

"Dog," he corrected.

"That too," she retorted huffily.


	42. Secretly Dashing

Title: Secretly Dashing

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: perfect [drabble#100]

Words: 100

Rating: T

Summary: Kagome mulls over her not-quite-kiss.

"He kissed you?"

"He didn't kiss me, he licked my mouth because there was muffin on it," Kagome retorted glumly.

"Sounds like a kiss to me," Jakotsu opined, "A kiss disguised as tasting. And you've got to give him kudos for being inventive."

"Yeah, well, whatever it was, I stormed out."

"Why?"

"Because I'm dating Hiten-kun!"

"Piffle, Muffin Man has nothing on your lover boy."

"He's not my anything."

"Does he know that?" Jakotsu waggled his brows, "And do _you_?"

"Of course!"

Jakotsu chuckled. "Maybe he thought the perfect kiss would make the lovely maiden fall in love with him."


	43. Secret Agony Uncle

Title: Secret Agony Uncle

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Early [drabble#101]

Words: 200

Rating: T

Genre: Humour Romance

Summary: Sesshoumaru's jealousy get's the better of him.

Hiten had come to collect Kagome for lunch early, and as such Sesshoumaru was privy to their interactions as he observed stonily.

Golden eyes narrowed as Hiten presented Kagome with confectionary and he grit his teeth as Kagome treated him to her most radiant smile.

Clawed hands gripped the desk as Hiten looped her arm through his and he bit back a snarl when the lightning demon dared to rub a thumb across Kagome's knuckles.

"You're decidedly green," Jakotsu quipped as he sat on the corner of Sesshoumaru's desk.

Sesshoumaru barely spared the man a glance as he watched Kagome depart, knuckles cracking as his death grip on the desk grew more intense.

"With jealousy of course," Jakotsu continued blithely, "I bet you'd like nothing better than to bake Muffin Man alive."

Sullen eyes flicked in Jakotsu's direction.

"_He_ can touch her without getting slapped," Jakotsu mused happily, "_he's_ completely dashing and I'll bet she's never called _him_ a jerk. Not to mention, after their date, she'll let _him_ kiss her... and it will be a real kiss."

Jakotsu leapt from the desk as the pressure of Sesshoumaru's hands broke a fissure in the wood.

"Temper, temper!" Jakotsu scolded smugly.


	44. Secret Desires

Title: Secret Desires  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Nemesis  
Words: 2,091  
Genre: Romance Comedy  
Rating: T  
Summary: Kagome reaches a conclusion

* * *

Slouched with her head in her hands, Kagome mourned for the days when her friends hadn't been getting married whilst Ayumi and Eri mooned over the latest in a long line of frocks that Sango was twirling around in.

The bridal dressing room was bringing back bad memories of the bridesmaid dress Kikyo had forced her into – though she had made Sango promise not to inflict something like that upon her before she'd agreed to be maid of honour. Yuka had escaped the festivities by pleading dentist, and Kagome wished she'd had the foresight to ask what they were doing on Saturday before she'd agreed to come along.

"What do you think?" Sango asked, swishing her skirts in Kagome's face and snapping her from daydream land long enough to give a perfunctory smile. but Sango was not to be placated and flicked her friend in the forehead. "I said, what do you think?"

"I think that if Miroku was here he'd tell you 'more cleavage' and to make sure it complimented your ass," Kagome answered bluntly, earning herself a titter of amusement from her assembled friends.

Sango raised a wry eyebrow and inspected the modest neckline. "Maybe a little more cleavage," she conceded.

Ayumi shuffled over to Kagome as Sango and Eri cooed over bodice designs and garters in a way that Kagome decided was simply not normal. Taking a seat beside the sulking woman, she nudged her gently, "Perk up Kagome, Sango wouldn't have asked you to come if she didn't want you here, and you are supposed to be her maid of honour."

Ayumi's little words of encouragement hit a soft spot in Kagome's heart and she smiled somewhat sheepishly. Who needed a conscience when they had Ayumi? But, she noted her selfishness and, with something bordering on recklessness, through aside her men problems and delved into the world of bridal wears.

When they finally surfaced from swathes of silk and lace, Sango declared that they needed tea, and they were all happy to relocate to the nearby teashop.

Sitting in a little window booth with a pot of jasmine tea, they gossiped about nothing and everything, until the topic of conversation invariably made its way round to Kagome's love life. Of the group of friends, she was the only one who wasn't at least engaged.

"So how are things with the Muffin Man?" Eri asked, pointing a stick of odango at her friend and waggling an eyebrow.

"Muffin Man?" Kagome pursed her lips, "have you been talking to Jakotsu?"

"How else would I get all my information?" Eri tossed her hair melodramatically, "you're so secretive Kagome-chan."

Rolling her eyes a little uncomfortably, she muttered, "We've been on three dates now."

"Three dates?" Ayumi asked, eyes twinkling, "So, has he swept you off your feet?"

Frowning and tracing her little finger in aimless patterns on the table, Kagome shrugged.

"A shrug?" Eri demanded, intrigued by her nonchalance, "that doesn't sound promising."

"Because she's Kagome," Sango interrupted, "and Hiten is the perfect catch."

"Ah," Ayumi and Eri nodded, enlightened but Kagome glowered, suddenly feeling out of the loop.

"What do you mean?" Kagome demanded, looking between her sagely nodding friends in bewilderment.

"You have a thing," Eri clarified whimsically waving her hands.

"Yep," Ayumi chimed in, lowering her tone in a confidential manner, "a thing."

"A thing?" Kagome repeated, looking to Sango for a little help.

"Yeah," Sango agreed, pointing at Kagome, "you can't like a good guy."

"Mmhmm," Ayumi agreed, stirring her tea whimsically, "remember Hojo-san? He was perfectly nice, had a good job, was handsome..."

"He was boring," Kagome corrected, the crease between her eyebrows becoming prominent as she shrugged of their accusations. Such things were unfounded.

Ayumi made a sound of dismay. "Not boring Kagome-chan, just normal!"

"And so you're still hung up on that dog demon, right?" Eri niggled, "because he's an arrogant asshole and therefore your thing kicks in and, for some unknown reason, you like him."

"I do not," Kagome denied the accusation fiercely, pointing a used odango stick at her friend in a menacing gesture.

"Hiten is a lightning Yokai," Eri pointed out, waggling her brows suggestively, "that's plenty dangerous for most."

"He's good looking," Ayumi chipped in solemnly, "I bought some mochi from his bakery last Thursday, all his female customers were drooling."

Eri grinned at her friend and leered at Kagome. "So, we've established his lack of boringness, now tell me, why aren't you beside yourself with joy?"

Kagome scowled at them, they always managed to back her into a corner over such things.

"You can't string Hiten along if you're still hung up on Sesshoumaru," Ayumi pitched in softly, playing the conscience again in her own way. Kagome bit her lip, was she really stringing him along?

_I like Hiten, he's charming and handsome and very nice to me, he'd never belittle me like Sesshoumaru does.  
_  
"Hiten is good to me," Kagome admitted, "he looks after me and makes me smile."

"He is very pleasant," Ayumi agreed softly.

"And I guess I needed a little pleasant in my life," she shrugged, "but, Ayumi is right, I can't keep dating him if I don't feel anything for him."

Ayumi's lips quirked slightly as she tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear. "You're making the right decision."

"Yeah," Kagome grumbled, "the problem here is, how to convince Hiten-kun that I'm doing the right thing."

Sango, who had been uncharacteristically silent for most of the conversation, idly cracked her knuckles, a slight smile playing across her lips. "Just tell him."

"Remember," Eri pointed out, waving an airy hand, "to take your pepper spray in case he gets out of hand."

"He's a demon," Sango rationalised, "pepper spray won't do much good except make him angry. She should take her stun pen instead."

Kagome looked back and forth between her two friends in a confused manner and Ayumi patted the back of her hand considerately. "I'm sure it will be fine!"

Kagome pursed her lips wryly. "I hope so."

0-0-0

Kagome shifted from foot to foot nervously, fingers playing with the strap of her handbag as she waited for Hiten to come and sit next to her.

She'd been psyching herself up to do this for a while, and now she had to do it. She was hopeless at breaking up with people, unwilling to hurt their feelings but she knew Ayumi was right; she couldn't keep stringing him along.

Hiten pulled off his apron and stepped from behind the counter, coming to sit down opposite her on one of his own bakery's tables.

Biting her bottom lip, Kagome avoided eye contact and instead stared at the table top.

Hiten frowned minutely. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kagome assured him, before sighing gustily, "but Hiten-kun, I'm not sure that we should carry on dating anymore," her words tumbled out in a rush.

He smiled softly and ruffled her hair in a way that bemused Kagome completely.

"I know," was all he said.

"You do?"

"It's easy to tell, Kagome-chan... plus... you stink of Inu," he chuckled

"I wasn't cheating on you," Kagome felt the need to clarify this.

"No, but you don't want me anyway," he shrugged and grinned recklessly, "you win some, you lose some."

"So... you're not angry with me?"

"Nope."

"Oh."

"But I would like my blender back from your apartment, after all we are still friends," he assured her.

"Oh, I'll get it for you," she said smiling brilliantly with her relief.

"I'll take you," he offered, "I know you don't have a car."

"Thanks!"

0-0-0

Bare feet padded across the laminate flooring of his apartment door as he went to open the door, mildly curious as to who would be calling by his house at this hour.

When he opened the door to reveal a fuming Kagome, he almost chuckled. She looked so very much like a cat that's tail had been trapped in a door.

"What?" he demanded bluntly, running a clawed hand through sleep rumpled hair.

Prodding him violently in his bare chest, she backed him up into his apartment, growling in a way that would make any inuyokai bitch jealous.

The quirked silver brow only served to fan the flames of her temper. "You wouldn't know anything about a sutra above my door, would you?"

"No," his nonchalance was perfect, and anybody else would have believed the straight-faced dog demon was telling the truth. But Kagome knew better.

"Liar!" she bit out, prodding him hard in the chest, "that sutra had you written all over it! You big dummy!"

A single brow was quirked in askance.

"No one else wants to electrocute Hiten-kun, except you!"

Sesshoumaru nodded his head, conceding that point.

"You are... gah!" she fumed, running out of suitable adjectives to accurately phrase her annoyance.

"He was at your apartment?" Sesshoumaru asked silkily, tactfully balling his hands into fists behind his back so that she couldn't see them.

"Yes!" Kagome fumed, "I told him I didn't want to date him anymore and he took it the way a normal person would. Actually he was very nice about it. But then, when he wanted his blender back from me, I went home to get it, and as he stepped over the threshold to help me... he was electrocuted!"

Sesshoumaru's lips quirked upwards into a darkly satisfied smile.

"You are the only person who would try to electrocute an electric demon," she muttered disparagingly, "and now he thinks I'm some freaky person who wards demons out of my home!"

"What does it matter, you broke up with him, did you not?"

"I broke up with him, but I didn't want you to break him!"

"Hn," Sesshoumaru turned his nose up at her.

Simmering with annoyance, she glared up at him. "And why were you even in my apartment with a sutra? Seriously Sesshoumaru, you're supposed to be a dog-demon, not a dog... you are supposed to mark territory."

Quicker than Kagome could make sense of it, she'd been pressed back against his front door, his bare chest inches away from her as he pinioned her in between his arms. She gulped as she was momentarily fascinated by how close his collar bone was... she wanted to... lick it.

Astounded by the bizarre urge, she closed her eyes tight. Sesshoumaru scowled at that and took one hand away from the wall to cup her chin and tilt her face upwards.

"Se-Sesshoumaru?" she squeaked, opening one eye tentatively only to close it sharply at the look of primal intent in his eyes.

"Marking territory?" he mused softly, she shivered as his warm breath ghosted over her lips, still not able to open her eyes, "You're along the right lines, Kagome, but I am staking a claim, not marking territory... either way you are still mine."

Kagome gulped and fought to find her voice. "But I'm just a toy to you, that's what you said!"

He huffed audibly. "Jealousy is powerful," he conceded, "I wanted to decapitate Hiten... I imagined him to be my nemesis... and I refuse to allow you to be anyone else's but mine."

Opening her eyes tentatively, she gazed up at him, surprised at the sincerity written on his face.

"Nemesis?" she ventured, grinning slightly, "melodramatic much?"

She squeaked when he bit her nose suddenly and swatted at him in retaliation.

"Why did you bite me?"

"Discipline for speaking out of line to your alpha."

"So now you're my alpha?"

"Correct."

"Nu-uh! I don't want an alpha!"

"Tough."

"Argh!" she reached up, standing on her tiptoes and using his shoulders for support, and bit his nose in return. The feel of the blunt little human teeth was strange to say the least and Sesshoumaru nearly stumbled in shock at her audacity.

He glowered at her. "That was?"

"Retaliation."

"Hn..." he watched her speculatively, eyes lingering on her petulant pout before he slowly leaned down, his hair falling in a thick curtain around them, shielding them from everything. She blinked in bewilderment as he ever so gently kissed the curve of her lower lip. "I demand... _retaliation_."

0-0-0

"Bea-san?" Hiten cradled the receiver in between his shoulder and his ear, "she broke up with me and went to see Sesshoumaru-san as you predicted."

There was a hearty chortle from the other end of the line.

"Are you sure she isn't going to be angry when she finds out?" Hiten queried concernedly.

"Of course not! I'm her favourite Aunt! She'd never be angry at me!"


	45. Secretly Spying

Title: Secretly Spying  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Tame  
Words: 300  
Rating: T  
Warnings: Healthy doses of kissing and some groping.  
Genre: Romance Comedy  
Summary: Kagome and Sesshoumaru are interrupted

* * *

Kagome wasn't the type of girl who fainted easily, but the press of Sesshoumaru's lips on hers was making her knees knock. A hand came up to push him away in shock, but it curled traitorously in his silky hair and pulled him closer instead.

Cruel lips retreated from hers as suddenly as they had attacked, his chasteness frustrated her and she blinked at him as those luscious lips moved. They were forming words.

"I demand... _retaliation_."

Shaking her head as if to rid her ears of water, she tried to snap out of the numb haze Sesshoumaru's lips seemed to have tangled her in. But her mind was all too busy focusing on the fact that his lovely lips were doing something other than pressing against her lips... or her throat... or anywhere else he wanted to put them.

Licking her lips, she grabbed a handful of his shirt, pulled herself onto her tippy-toes, and pressed her lips to his.

Now, this was better, those cruel lips were pressed against hers again and she wondered fleetingly how he'd manoeuvred them to the sofa as her hands knotted in his hair once more.

Pinned underneath the demon, she groaned in annoyance when his lips vanished from hers only to sigh in relief as they paid homage to her neck instead.

As a deft hand traced the lace of her bra, the prim and proper side of her brain screamed that this was too fast, and she cheerfully bludgeoned it to death.

Shrill and insistent, the ringing phone tamed her lust like a bucket of iced-water. He snatched it up and she flinched.

A woman's voice.

Sesshoumaru growled and passed her the phone, "For you."

Bewildered, Kagome took it.

"I expect an invite to your wedding, Kagome-dahling!"

"_Aunt Bea_?... Go Away!


	46. Secretly Content

Title: Secretly Content

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Palm

Rating: T

Genre: Humour Romance

Words: 400

Summary: Declarations are made, rice is thrown.

Sitting on her zabuton, Kagome speared an octopi wiener with her chopsticks and regarded Sesshoumaru cautiously.

After their interrupted kiss last week, he'd invited her over for dinner... but knowing what a bad cook he was she probably should have expected cup-ramen, gloopy rice, and octopi wieners. The disparaging look she'd treated him to had been met with a haughty head toss and a sniff.

"Cooking is harder than it looks," was all he'd said. And she hadn't poked any further for fear of stepping on wounded – and probably bamboozled – pride. He was still touchy about losing to Hiten in that particular department. But, to be honest, she'd rather risk food poisoning and eat Sesshoumaru's food, than a gourmet meal prepared by Hiten.

Sesshoumaru huffed at the suspicious glances she kept flinging in his general direction.

Kagome kept staring at him unabashedly; something was off. He was... happy? Was that the emotion she was searching for?

It was there in the upturned corners of his mouth, in the slight gentling of his golden eyes and the furrow that was normally between his brows had smoothed over.

A giggle bubbled in her throat as a grain of rice got stuck to the corner of her mouth and Sesshoumaru quirked a brow at her, her giggles escalated.

Sitting up on her knees, she leant across the table and rubbed the grain of rice away with her thumb, and Sesshoumaru became faintly mesmerised with the way she poked her tongue out as she did so.

Sitting back onto her heels, she pointed her chopsticks at him. "Why are you so happy?"

He blinked and froze for a moment before relaxing and smirking dangerously. "_Hn_."

Blue eyes narrowed shrewdly. "What did you do?"

"Exacted revenge, demonstrated dominance, declared intentions," he listed in a blasé fashion.

"So, you visited Hiten-kun then," Kagome commented dryly, "Is he still alive?"

"Unfortunately."

"And what do you mean 'declared intentions'?"

"I will court you."

"You will, will you?" Kagome peered at him, unconvinced.

"That is what I told him," Sesshoumaru narrowed amused golden eyes at her, "would you make me a liar?"

"Oh," she grinned, "so you think you've got me in the palm of your hand, do you?"

"Indeed."

"But Sesshoumaru," she smiled sweetly and Sesshoumaru blinked as she calmly balanced a rice grain on the end of his nose, "I could never date a man wearing rice."


	47. A Secretive Breech in Security

Title: A Secretive Breech in Security

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Pinch

Words: 1,725

Rating: T

Genre: Humour Romance

Summary: Sesshoumaru has plans for revenge but Kagome is quicker on the draw.

The orchestra had struck up a jaunty tune that mingled with the decidedly upper-class conversation and clinking of champagne flutes. Ball gowns rustled regally, high heels clicked softly against the marble floor, laughter tinkled in separate corners of the room, ladies mingled and flirted and tittered behind their masks. It was a most grand masquerade ball befitting only the toast of Tokyo's society elites and hosted by a bored society wife who delighted in throwing extravagant parties; the more extravagant the better. Sesshoumaru's family name had been enough to swindle them an invite in order to... enact his revenge.

Kagome found it rather amusing that he wanted revenge so badly. Sure, her Aunt Bea had called inconveniently and probably on purpose so she could rub their noses in her own superiority, but Sesshoumaru didn't seem to know how to take the moral high ground. Kagome smiled softly to herself; but then again, taking the moral high ground wasn't fun at all.

Playing dress up was fun though. And the golden ball gown and feathered, bejewelled, mask that Sesshoumaru had acquired for her to wear had stunned her into silence. His appearance at her door wearing black breeches had made her question her sanity temporarily, though.

When she'd asked about the breeches and the decorative mask, he'd replied bluntly that it was camouflage. Here, in the midst of other dressed-up partygoers in masks and poofy trousers and fluffy skirts, Kagome couldn't fault the statement.

Leaning in so that her breath ghosted along Sesshoumaru's collar bone, Kagome murmured, "Is this really necessary?"

"It is," he answered stoutly; chin tilting stubbornly as he surveyed the room for his prey.

Kagome shuffled her feet uncomfortably and lifted her mask from her eyes slightly to glare at him more impressively. "This dress itches," she grouched, playing with her poofy golden skirts idly, "though it does kind of make me feel like I should be in Venice somewhere."

"Keep your mask in place," Sesshoumaru hissed, "you don't want her to spot us."

"No," she corrected glibly, placing her free hand on one stubborn hip, "_you_ don't want her to spot us."

Sesshoumaru almost, almost gave an indignant squeak as she pinched his hip and giggled. "Although, the breeches are nice," she enthused.

"A necessary ploy," he corrected obstinately, "though I am glad they aren't that colour."

Kagome giggled as a man skipped his way through the room in bright green breeches, his beer belly didn't really help matters much either.

"So, you found her yet?" Kagome inquired lazily as she played with the pearls decorating the bodice of her dress.

"I will," he promised, deadly intent shining in his eyes.

Kagome chuckled softly, fidgeting from foot to foot as she casually surveyed the room. Playing spy was all well and good, but she was bored of standing around. Tilting slightly to her left, and keeping a firm grasp on Sesshoumaru's poofy embroidered sleeve, she gaped at someone that looked dreadfully like the prime minister's son, well as far as she could tell as he was wearing a mask that obscured the left half of his face. Gulping, she raised her brows; apparently they really were in with the big fishes so to speak.

"Ne, Sesshoumaru, was that who I think it was?" she asked, tugging on his sleeve and gesturing in the direction of the masked maybe-celebrity.

Large hands swatted her petite ones away from his sleeve and his eyes tracked the man who held her interest."No, this man has a scar on the back of his neck, he isn't the prime minister's son."

Wrinkling her nose, Kagome instead decided to help Sesshoumaru search the crowd for his target instead and, much to his chagrin, she spotted her aunt's golden hair and haughty attitude within seconds.

Taking her arm, Sesshoumaru led them across the ballroom floor to where the blonde waxed eloquent to an eager crowd of rapt partygoers.

Kagome's aunt Bea basked in the attention of the small crowd she had gathered, blue eyes shrewd as she tossed her hair over her shoulder haughtily.

"Of course," she blithely continued her story that had her listeners simultaneously tittering with laughter and aghast, "he demanded a refund, but I told him that there would be a problem with lots of bite... he really should have been expecting a shark attack!"

At the punch line of her little skit, the assembled crowd laughed as one, as if choreographed, and the tilt of her mouth betrayed her smug satisfaction. She'd always loved being the centre of attention.

"Aunt Bea!" Kagome cried happily as she pushed through the throngs of people to get to her aunt's side. Sesshoumaru almost rolled his eyes, after all his attempts to keep themselves hidden in order to surprise the woman, Kagome just waded on in carelessly, "Are you telling stories of your golden days?"

Bea's eyes crinkled happily behind her magenta mask. "My golden days are far from over darling, but regaling eager listeners with tales of my days as a fortune teller never gets old."

Kagome's smile was bright and... evil. Sesshoumaru blinked in bemusement as the niece and aunt smiled dangerously at each other.

"Did you tell them about the time you interfered in your niece's love life?" Kagome queried softly, the delicate cadences of the words making her sound more threatening than if she'd screamed it. Sesshoumaru quirked a brow; he hadn't realised that Kagome had been out for revenge too.

The watching crowd stepped back uncomfortably, the icy anger pouring off the two women in waves was more than most of them could bare.

Bea casually settled a hand on her hip and tilted her head to one side in a considering manner. "I'd consider that one of my best exploits," Bea bragged, eyes glittering.

"Oh, really?" Kagome stepped to mirror her Aunt, her sleek ebony hair tumbling in ringlets – which she'd so painstakingly curled earlier – as she tilted her head to one side.

"But of course," Bea said, her voice amused and light, there was a slight teasing undertone too, "I made her potential lover jealous and got the two of them together."

"You manipulated her and him, like they were puppets," Kagome bit back, her voice gaining a hint of venom.

Bea's eyes grew wide and then soft. "Oh, Kagome-chan, I would never manipulate you. I simply showed you that you didn't want 'the perfect catch' that you wanted – for reasons that escape me –" she tossed a dry glance in Sesshoumaru's direction that was returned with a scowl, "you wanted him. And he obviously wants you. Be happy! You're both so darned stubborn that you'd be my age before you'd actually started dating! Maybe my method was wrong, but it's how I've always done things. And apparently it worked at getting you two together," she gestured between the two of them for emphasis.

Kagome's lips pursed and Sesshoumaru smirked slightly. Apparently her aunt knew exactly the right way to get back into her good books, not to mention, Kagome was a very familial person; she couldn't stay mad at her aunt for long. Golden eyes narrowed shrewdly; he'd have to ask Bea just how she'd calmed Kagome down so fast, he'd benefit from that little trick greatly.

"I'll forgive you," Kagome bargained "if..."

"If what?" Bea asked, surprised by the conditions to the forgiveness. Normally Kagome forgave her almost instantly; she'd never been one to hold a grudge over family.

"If you promise never to phone Sesshoumaru's house ever again!" Kagome demanded, cheeks flaming red as she remembered the kisses that Bea's untimely call had interrupted.

Bea's eyes twinkled with mischievousness. "Why ever not, Kagome-chan?" she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently, "I couldn't have interrupted any... intimate activities, could I?"

Kagome was suddenly very glad she was wearing a mask; it meant that the partygoers couldn't see her ruby red cheeks as she groaned in embarrassment.

She gave a little squeak as an arm wrapped around her waist from behind and she stumbled gracelessly back into Sesshoumaru's warm, broad chest.

"Seeing as you were kind enough to ensure our courtship," Sesshoumaru drawled, "I'll assume you wouldn't mind me stealing your niece for a dance."

Bea pursed her red lips. "Only if you bring her back before ten," she teased gently.

A fang protruded over Sesshoumaru's bottom lip as he smirked crookedly. "But I didn't plan on ever giving her back," he murmured as he swept a bamboozled Kagome out onto the ballroom floor.

She laughed as he effortlessly twirled them through the Viennese waltz, the dizzy feeling could well have been from dancing but, more likely, it was from the close proximity to Sesshoumaru.

The light touch of his big hand on her lower back made her stomach tingle and her cheeks warm. She still marvelled over this innocent contact between the two of them, pleased that she could bask in it now, instead of beating it away as she had always done before. Though she wanted to melt into his embrace as she felt compelled to, she kept her wits about her and did her best not to step on his feet. It was a darn sight harder than it should have been, due to the fluffy skirts that blocked her view of her feet. It she did tread on him, he took the beating without flinching.

"Did I steal your revenge?" she queried laughingly, basking in the warmth of his honeyed eyes as he peered imperiously down his nose at her.

Golden eyes softened ever so slightly. "I stole this dance, so we are even," he decided, nodding so that his braided hair slid over one shoulder like a snake, tickling her cheek as it passed her to hang by the side of his head.

"If you say so," she murmured happily, "so, have we stopped playing spies now?"

He tilted his chin, affronted, bottom lip protruding slightly like a petulant child. "Who was playing?"

0-0-0

Anger seethed and swelled and rose and culminated as dark eyes watched the demon and the human twirl through the crowd of dancers. The other's faded hazily in his murderous vision, until all he could see was the blissful couple tinted red. The taste of copper lingered in his mouth.

Wrong, so wrong.

But he could make it right.

He _would_ make it so.


	48. Secret Sins

Title: Secret Sins

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Wall

Words: 300

Genre: Drama

Rating: T

Summary: AU. Demented thoughts and secrets that are best left undiscovered.

To him, there had always been an unconquerable wall between demons and humans. The Hanyou were filthy vile creatures that had no business on god's earth and he took it upon himself to free the humans from them all together. He saw himself as a keeper of the peace, as a protector of humans and as a hunter of demons. The creatures that hid in the night.

But this was incomprehensible. This woman of unparalleled spiritual awareness with, if he could detect it correctly, some kind of advanced precognition, was letting one of those dirty beasts touch her.

The beast was formidable, his immense youki prickled the back of his neck and he hated him.

Righting the wrong would be his pleasure and hunting his prey to save the innocent was something he took great pride in. Yes, he would save the beautiful, pure Higurashi Kagome from the beast with the golden eyes.

Of course, in all of his sleuthing, he knew the beast's name, but he preferred not to allow the beast such a courtesy as to call him by it. Humanifying a terrifying creature of night was not proper.

Higurashi Kagome's secret was most illuminating and with a sudden burst of enlightenment he understood why she chose to be in the demon's company.

When one had committed the most grievous of sins they tended to believe that they belonged with the lowest of the low... such as this demon.

Indeed, the woman was confused, but he could save her, even from her own sins, and return her again to the path of righteousness.

There would be none who could stop him from saving Higurashi Kagome's soul. The demon would die and god would forgive her.

Ungai solemnly bowed and gave his promise to the grave of Higurashi Souta.


	49. A Secret Shared

Title: A Secret Shared

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Scam

Rating: T

Genre: Drama Romance

Words: 200

Summary: AU. Kagome reveals a little and Sesshoumaru reassures.

"It's a scam," Sesshoumaru declared obstinately as they passed the fortune telling booth at the festival.

"No," Kagome corrected, "_she_ is a scam."

A silver brow arched carefully at her assertion. "Indeed?"

Folding her arms across her chest, Kagome frowned down at the hem of her red yukata, a little crease forming between her brows. "My family can see the future," she announced, "All those with blue eyes are supposed to be gifted," Kagome hedged, playing with the fan Sesshoumaru had won for her from one of the stalls.

"Your eyes are blue," Sesshoumaru pressed, feeling his way around the edges of yet another of Kagome's secrets, "so, you can see the future?"

"It's not as exact as that," Kagome protested, hide her blushing cheeks with her fan; she'd never intended to tell Sesshoumaru any of this.

"Explain."

"Right now," Kagome muttered, casting an anxious glance around the festival, "all I feel is that someone is watching us... something bad is coming."

Sesshoumaru was a sceptic at heart, but Kagome was edgy; her tiny shoulders were hunched as if she was freezing, though the night was balmy.

"We will be fine," he pledged, cupping her cheek tenderly.

"I hope so..."

A/N: Ungai is the crazy monk who tried to take Rin from Sesshoumaru. Thanks so much for all your wondrous reviews!


	50. Secretly, You Will Protect Me

Title: Secretly, You Will Protect Me

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Instinct

Words: 1,156

Genre: Romance Drama Humour

Rating: T

Summary: AU. Sesshoumaru makes a vow.

Sesshoumaru draped an arm round Kagome's trembling shoulders and fitted her into his side in a proprietary manner. As on edge as she was, it was impossible to dispute her belief that something bad was about to happen. Even if he didn't quite believe her to possess precognition as she claimed, he believed well enough in intuition. But she'd scared herself so much that she hadn't been able to enjoy the festival properly and they'd ended up leaving early.

But, now that they were heading home he had the curious instinct to take her to his home and ensure that she would be okay. When she was so jumpy he didn't want to leave her alone. Not that he'd admit to the extremely embarrassing protective urges he had been experiencing as of late when it came to Kagome. Brows furrowed, he dismissed the thought that he was behaving like a bonded male and led her to his home.

A fairly wilting Kagome barely noticed that the path he was steering her down was not the road to home, she was too occupied by the lingering sense that someone was plotting against her in some way. But, when they entered a tastefully decorated hallway and got into an elevator, she twigged that she definitely wasn't at her apartment.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked, tilting her chin so she could scowl adorably up at his cheek stripes – the only part of his face she could see due to how he'd tucked her under his arm, "why am I here?"

Golden eyes peered imperiously down at her. "I desire that you spend the night."

Kagome's eyes grew wide; enough that she resembled a startled owl. "B-but I..." speech failed her and she settled for blushing fiercely.

Smirking at how she'd misconstrued his words, he twirled her so she was pressed against the door to his apartment and leaned in to capture her chin between his thumb and forefinger. His other arm braced against the side of her head as he leaned in. "I was not about to suggest such intimacies," he purred, silver hair cascading around them in a curtain that secluded them from the rest of the world, "but if you desire me, Kagome, I will not deny you."

Pretty sure that her hair was blushing by this point, she avoided eye contact and swivelled so her back was against his chest, reaching down to open the door, only to find that – naturally – it was locked.

"Just open the door, Sesshoumaru," she half-whispered, grateful that she had not sounded as squeaky as she had feared, but aggrieved to find that her voice was husky enough to betray her lust. If her scent hadn't already done that for her.

A clawed hand flattened across her abdomen and pulled her hips back against his as he leaned over her torso in a calculated movement that had her completely caged in against the door. Scowling and blushing with equal severity, she watched as his other hand concentrated on sliding the key into the depths of the lock.

As she waited, somewhat impatiently, for him to unlock the door, she was startled into squeaking as his lips found time to pay homage to the expanse of her neck that wasn't obscured by her furisode.

"S-Sesshoumaru?" she stuttered, her voice an octave higher due to her surprise.

"The key won't work," he murmured against the column of her throat, the vibrations of his speech made her tremble.

"You didn't even turn it," she protested half-heartedly, sighing contentedly as he nosed the collar of her furisode to one side to expose more of her neck to his questing lips.

It was anyone's guess how things might have progressed if Kagome hadn't tensed and trembled; suddenly very aware that the deserted hallway wasn't quite as deserted as it had been.

_The person who's been stalking us is here?_

Straining in Sesshoumaru's grasp, she peered out from behind his shoulder and blinked, bemused, at their silent spectator.

A little boy of around four stood, just outside an ajar apartment door, staring at them in a bored manner.

"Sesshoumaru!" she barked out as his deft fingers found their way inside her furisode, "There's a child watching!"

Mildly miffed at the child for ruining his fun, Sesshoumaru bared his fangs at the creature, startling the human into retreating into his own apartment. Deciding that such activities should perhaps be better carried out inside, Sesshoumaru opened the door, amused when Kagome, not expecting him to open the door so abruptly, promptly tumbled into the _genkan_ drunkenly.

His subdued snort caught her ire and she turned her head to poke her tongue out at him irritably.

Closing the door behind him, he prowled over to her, illuminated as she was by the city lights that filtered through his window he could see her plainly, but she was having a harder time making him out and squeaked when he pounced on her, knocking her over onto his sofa and kissing her on the end of her nose.

Kagome's stomach chose this moment to pipe up with a grumbling growl of hunger and Sesshoumaru's eyes sparked in amusement as she pressed her hands to her stomach and scowled at the untimely interruption.

"I will make you something," he vowed solemnly, scowling lightly as Kagome pressed a hand to her mouth in mock-horror.

"I'll be fine with just some toast," she hedged, not wanting to push him into cooking something more extravagant.

"Fine," he nodded, escaping into the kitchen to make toast. Toast was something he was adept at; possibly it was the only thing he could make successfully without burning it.

Plating the toast with a flourish, Sesshoumaru strolled back into the living room only to stop short at the sight of Kagome.

Apparently his time spent in the kitchen had been far too long for the young woman, as she'd fallen asleep on his sofa, curled around his silver cushion, lips parted in contented sleepiness.

Putting the plate on the coffee table, he bent down and scooped her into his arms. She stirred slightly, curling into the warmth of his chest as he carried her into the bedroom, grunting as she nearly threw him off balance as she attempted to wiggle over his shoulder in her sleep.

Finally setting her down in his bed, he climbed in behind her, pausing only to remove her spiky hair pins and loosen her obi so she was more comfortable.

Curled around her tiny frame, he was once again assaulted by the protective urges that he wished to remain secret.

Dropping his face into her hair he basked in her light scent and his eyes glowed red momentarily as he dwelled on her unsettling proclamation that someone was after them. If they were really being targeted, then he would eviscerate their stalker.

Heaven help the man who was foolish enough to attempt to tear him from Kagome.


	51. Secret Stupidity

Title: Secret Stupidity

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Flame

Words: 100

Genre: Drama

Summary: AU. Sesshoumaru senses an intruder.

Chest heaving, Sesshoumaru bolted upright in his bed, beads of sweat dewing his forehead as he scanned the familiar room for the intruder. Kagome slept huddled against him and he left her there as he hunted the infiltrator.

Kagome's precognition was proven correct as he stepped onto a craftily placed sutra outside the bedroom door.

Growling at the attempted-purification, he flared his aura and, with a purple flame, the sutra fizzled away.

The sutra-creator had some skill if he'd successfully infiltrated Sesshoumaru's home.

But there was something lacking: intelligence.

No one with a modicum of intelligence would _ever_ infuriate Sesshoumaru.


	52. Harbouring Secret Delusions

Title: Harbouring Secret Delusions

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Tremor

Words: 300

Rating: T

Genre: Drama Romance

Summary: AU. Happy moments are misconstrued.

Laying the binoculars down beside him woodenly, Ungai sighed pensively, his steadfast determination set aflame after what he had just witnessed.

Narrowing spiteful eyes, he decided that he would have to act more decisively, and soon, lest he be too late to save the purity of Higurashi Kagome's soul.

He felt physically sick that she had permitted _it_ to kiss her, that she had allowed those fangs and claws near her fragile body.

Higurashi Kagome was vulnerable, and it was his duty to protect her.

The sutra had been a test of the Yokai's strength, but to see the monster dispel it so easily was irksome. Spiritual power alone would not be enough to dispatch _this_ Yokai. No, this extermination would require delicacy and patience; he would have to wait for the right moment to eviscerate that monster from Higurashi Kagome's side.

Luckily, Ungai was a very patient person.

0-0-0

Growling under his breath, Sesshoumaru slipped back into his bedroom, eyes softening at the sight of Kagome huddled into a ball in his bed.

After the ridiculous sutra and an apparent – yet weak – attempt at purification, Sesshoumaru had implemented his pest control system. He was certain that no idiot holy-man would be accessing his property any time soon.

Restless, he clambered back into the bed and curled around Kagome's smaller form possessively. Nose burrowed in her hair, he tried to dispel the urge to hunt down the intruder instantly and disembowel him.

He would, of course, seek to do just that and soon, but right now he refused to leave Kagome alone.

Whatever this threat was, it was after both of them.

In his arms, a tremor passed through Kagome. "No..." she murmured in her sleep, "don't hurt... Sesshoumaru."

Stroking her brow gently, he kissed her temple. "We are fine, Kagome."


	53. Secretly Sincere

Title: Secretly Sincere

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Make Believe

Words:

Genre: Romance Drama

Rating: T

Summary: AU. An ominous presence lingers and Kagome recalls painful memories.

Sesshoumaru glanced up from his book as the tumblers in the door lock turned, announcing Kagome's arrival home. His shoulders relaxed from a tenseness he hadn't realised until she had returned to relative safety. Since the home invasion and Kagome's prophesised 'bad days' they had spent more and more time in each other's company. Her scent and presence reassured Sesshoumaru that she was unharmed, his presence soothed her worry both for his safety and for her own.

"Bankotsu thinks he's in love," Kagome confided, "and had me peer into his future to see if he's found 'the one'." She rolled her eyes disparagingly.

The conversation about Kagome's moonlighting as a fortune teller had been an interesting one and Sesshoumaru had basically ordered her to stop. She'd been livid at his perceived controlling nature, until he'd clarified that he hated the idea of her being alone with a person she hardly knew. So she'd cut her client list down to the people she knew until after they found out who was stalking them. He still didn't like it, but it turned out he hated upsetting her more than he hated not being able to tell her what to do. Compromises were made grudgingly.

Sesshoumaru scoffed. "And will it last?" he asked disinterestedly, still keeping up the facade of reading his book, as Kagome slipped her shoes off and her slippers on in the genkan.

Kagome giggled. "I had an impression of hot and passionate; he was pleased enough with that."

Sesshoumaru scowled lightly as she padded across his hardwood floor to curl up into his side on the sofa. "You shouldn't have gone," he scolded, "it was not important."

Kagome sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder tiredly; they'd had this... debate before she'd left to see Bankotsu. "He's my friend," she stressed the word and waved her hands abstractly, "he is important."

Sesshoumaru made a noise of derision in the back of his throat and pushed his hair back over one shoulder. "His issues are unimportant," he muttered sullenly.

Giggling into his shoulder, she wound a long strand of silver hair around her index finger and tugged lightly. "Sure, sure. So... did you miss me?"

"Hn," he wrinkled his nose and she kissed his throat teasingly.

"I missed you too," she cajoled before her smile morphed into a frown, "nothing happened when I was gone... did it?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head sombrely. "I was fine," he assured her.

"This weekend..." she trailed off and sagged into him, an air of melancholy plaguing her once pleasant scent. Sesshoumaru shifted uncomfortably as it permeated the air and put his book down on the coffee table.

"Kagome?"

Sighing wearily, she ploughed on. "This weekend is the anniversary of my brother's death," she confided, "Rin is... was his daughter and Mee his wife."

Sesshoumaru turned his body so she could rest his head against his chest instead of his shoulder, looping his arm around her waist and squeezing her gently.

He didn't offer her any more than silent comfort and stoic reassurance, but it was so much more comforting than the hollow words most people flung at her. 'I'm sorry' meant nothing; empty words held no ounce of comfort that this solid embrace did.

"I shall go with you to tend to the grave," he announced solemnly.

She smiled, though the effect was a little watery. "Rin will like that; she said the other day that she hasn't seen you in a while."

"How long has it been?"

"Rin was three," she mused, "so I guess it was quite a long time ago."

"To those that remember," Sesshoumaru spoke gravely, "it was yesterday."

Closing her eyes, she snuggled into his chest; grateful that he was there as they basked in each other's presence.

0-0-0

"See, simple," Kagome pointed out, dishing up the _kake udon_ into a bowl, grinning slightly at the look of contempt he flashed the simple noodles in broth. He was still sour over his lack of culinary prowess, even now.

Moodily swirling his chopsticks around in the bowl, he played with his food instead of eating it until Kagome shoved her own chopsticks into his mouth.

The look of surprised outrage as he chewed almost against his will set Kagome into a peel of giggles and he growled at her as he swallowed.

"Wench," he grumbled, reaching to run his claws gently along her sides, sending her into paroxysms of giggles at the tickling touch.

Relief flooded his system at her easy laughter, he had not enjoyed her earlier melancholy, and her suffering plagued him.

She lifted her bowl and escaped his tickling caress to the corner of the kitchen, poking her tongue out at him teasingly.

"Minx," he uttered.

"It's not fair!" she protested, "You aren't ticklish! So you can't—"

Suddenly she cut off in the middle of her sentence, hands shaking.

Sesshoumaru was across the room in a heartbeat, pitching the bowl onto the counter so he could tilt her face up to his.

Unfocused blue eyes sought his eyes blearily.

"Kagome!" he barked, concernedly.

She jumped at the sound of her name and, all at once, crumpled into his chest, gripping his shirt as she shivered convulsively.

"Kagome?" he asked, brushing her hair back soothingly as he cradled her to him protectively. His instincts roared up; demanding that he destroy the person who made the scent of fear cloy her own naturally beautiful scent.

"It's fine," she murmured, "it was nothing, just the feeling again..."

"Do not employ censure," he warned.

"It feels like," she frowned and buried her face into his chest. "It feels like..."

She trailed off for a moment and sighed.

"When I was little I used to think that my '_feelings'_ were just make believe, that they didn't _mean_ anything," she admitted, "but the day dad died of a heart attack I was violently depressed all day – before anyone had heard the news."

Sesshoumaru's embrace tightened until it was hard to breathe but somehow it gave Kagome strength to continue.

"This feels just like that... but worse. This time it feels malicious."


	54. Secrets in the GodTree

Title: Secrets in the God-Tree

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Chest

Words: 200

Rating: T

Genre: Drama

Summary: AU. Kagome's intuition pays off.

Kagome relaxed into her mother's fierce hug and submitted to being told that she should come home to the shrine more often. Mayhap her mother was right; the longing feeling in her chest had intensified when she'd crossed the threshold of her childhood home.

Introducing Sesshoumaru had been an amusing affair, her mother practically melancholic that he didn't have Inuyasha's ears and Sesshoumaru livid that she seemed to prefer Inuyasha. But that had been swept under the rug when her mother had realised she'd get puppy-eared grandchildren – despite Kagome's protests that it was far too early to be thinking like that.

Grandfather had flung a few customary sutras at the demon in their midst and, due to some pleading and forewarning by Kagome, Sesshoumaru didn't react to being plastered with bits of paper.

Mee, though it was the anniversary of her husband's death, was obviously trying to be calm for Rin, who clung to her mother's side silently.

"Well," Mrs Higurashi murmured, "shall we?"

They all trooped towards Souta's grave, except Kagome, who lingered at the gate, glaring venomously at the god-tree.

"Leave, this is for Souta."

In the boughs of the Goshinboku, Ungai bowed his head reverentially.

_Another day_.


	55. Secretly Expecting

Title: Secretly Expecting

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Tuck

Rating: T

Words: 400

Genre: Romance

Summary: AU. The Higurashi family dwells on births and deaths.

Regrouping in the Higurashi's kitchen, the extended family basked in the presence of each other and revelled in the safety of home. They were practically falling out of the tiny kitchen's ears, due to the slightly belated arrival of Inuyasha and Kikyo who were in the mood for sharing honeymoon photos and tales to a melancholy family who were in the mood to listen.

Kagome was sharing a chair with Sesshoumaru, mirrored by Mee with her daughter Rin, and Kikyo and Inuyasha had claimed the rocking chair. Grandpa was sat in his special cushioned seat and Mama mulled around the main kitchen, dodging legs and heads in a bid to put dinner on the table. Habitually people offered to help her, but she seemed to be the only person able to negotiate this many people in a closed space without a calamity.

Kagome, nestled in the safe embrace of Sesshoumaru, surrounded by her family, permitted herself a slight smile as she listened to Kikyo complain about how Inuyasha refused to get into the pool with her – something about getting water in his ears.

Inuyasha, arms still looped around the waist of his new bride, tucked his chin into her shoulder and called everyone's attention. Kikyo spoke, "I can remember the day of Rin's birth," she spoke quietly, gazing affectionately at Rin, "Souta was so happy, he loved children, probably why he and Mee had Rin so soon after getting married. But, right after Mee had fallen asleep, he and I were the only ones in the room and he was holding Rin like she was his entire world."

This was tradition – they would all share a good memory of Souta on this day and bask in the happiness he had bestowed upon their lives.

"Souta told me that I was stupid for not wanting children, that I should experience for myself the joy of seeing my eyes copied in another's face. And now, I finally can, we're pregnant!"

Kagome laughed happily as everyone sprung to hug her cousin, nestling back into Sesshoumaru's embrace subconsciously.

Mrs Higurashi turned her eyes on the pair, "You two next!"

"Okasan!" Kagome blushed bright red and hid behind Sesshoumaru's hair.

"Rin would like a cousin!"

Had Souta been alive to see it, he would have loved this example of family togetherness. It was enough to make Kagome forget the sinking feeling that something was amiss.


	56. Secrets in the Night

Title: Secrets in the Night

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Flourish

Rating: T

Genre: Romance Drama

Words: 2,149

Summary: AU. Kagome stumbles across someone in the dead of night, and Sesshoumaru is concerned.

"Are you sure your mother doesn't mind us spending the night here?" Sesshoumaru asked quietly as he rolled out his futon next to Kagome's on her bedroom floor. The wallpaper was the same sugar pink it had been when she had been small, the bookcases stacked with tales of fairies and magic, the pink desk covered with Hello Kitty stickers held dominion over its corner. It was hardly the bedroom Kagome had wanted to take Sesshoumaru to, but aside from a snort of amusement upon entrance, he'd failed to mention it any further.

Inuyasha and Kikyo had been allocated the spare bedroom and they had retired, holding hands, surrounded by an almost visible haze of post-honeymoon bliss.

Rin and Mee had claimed Souta's old room that had been cleared of some of his childhood memorabilia to make way for the futon's of his wife and daughter. Kagome had wondered over this arrangement, worried that it might upset Mee more than necessary. After all, staying in the old bedroom of her dead husband could be upsetting, but Mee seemed to derive a certain comfort from being amongst Souta's things. Kagome would often catch Mee running her fingertips over Souta's things, a small smile playing at her lips as her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Mama loves having the house filled up to the brim," Kagome confided as she brushed her hair with her old pony-covered hairbrush, "almost as much as she enjoyed cooking for all of us."

Sesshoumaru frowned at that. "She taught you to cook?"

"Of course!" Kagome smiled as she took her earrings out to lay them on the bedside table.

Still stung over his apparent inability to cook, Sesshoumaru mulled this over for a moment. "Would she teach me?"

Kagome giggled at his strangely adorable consternation. Truth be told, this little blip of imperfection made him sweet in her eyes and not as overwhelmingly perfect as some people believed him to be. "Sure, if you can put up with her nagging you for grandchildren the entire time!"

Blinking in mute horror at the prospect, Sesshoumaru shook his head and pouted slightly. There was something creepy about Mrs Higurashi's obsession with grandchildren.

Kagome giggled at his horrified expression as she walked past the reclining demon to the dresser.

With a flourish, Sesshoumaru snagged her pillow and pitched it at her head, quickly composing himself to sit motionless and innocent so that, when she turned around in a fit of pique, he would appear to have done nothing.

Growling at his back, she snagged the pillow that had made a shambles of her sleek, just brushed hair and attempted to hit him across the head in retaliation.

Of course, this move was parried with exceeding agility from her demonic companion and she was casually flipped beneath him onto the futon. Claw tips teasing sought out her ticklish spots and Kagome was wriggling and thrashing around on the sofa, laughing until tears sprung to her eyes.

They both started and sprung quickly apart when the sliding door was peeled open with a bang, Rin tumbling into the room soon after.

"Kagome-obasan!" she hissed in a stage whisper, cheeks flushed red with excitement. Fresh from the bath, Rin's feet were cased in slippers, her wet hair gathered into a braid, light blue paisley pyjamas donned and sleeves folded back to free her hands.

"Rin-chan!" Kagome exalted, pouncing upon her niece and hugging her tightly, inhaling the scent of her strawberry shampoo as she lowered her face to Rin's scalp.

Sesshoumaru, leaning against the far wall, watched with softening golden eyes as the Kagome tickled Rin into a blaze of giggles and the little might protested somewhat, but it was merely a pretence. Clearly she adored the attention.

"Mama went to bed," Rin mumbled against Kagome's pyjama top as she buried into her aunt's shoulder, "so will you take me to the usual place please?"

Kagome frowned slightly. "Maybe in the morning Rin-chan," she cajoled, smoothing the top of the girls head, "it's already dark out and we are in our pyjamas."

Rin pulled back from Kagome slightly to look up at her with beseeching eyes. "Please? It will be fine! Like a pyjama party... and if Sesshoumaru-san comes with us he can see in the dark!"

Sesshoumaru blinked at the inclusion, having previously thought that this was something Rin wanted to do with Kagome alone.

"I will go."

Shooting Sesshoumaru a surprised look, Kagome ruffled Rin's hair. "You've got this all figured out, huh?"

Rin beamed toothily up at her aunt and Kagome grinned back. "Then, lets get you a flashlight, okay?"

"Yay!" Rin cheered as she raced down the stairs three at a time, leaving Sesshoumaru and Kagome in her wake.

"Softy," Kagome heckled gently, grabbing his hand in hers and tugging him after her down the stairs.

As they donned wellington boots in the genkan, Sesshoumaru steadied Kagome by her elbow as she teetered on one foot whilst putting on a wellington and whispered in her ear. "Is it okay for me to come with you?"

Kagome blinked in surprise and her heart melted just a little at the shielded concern that darkened his golden eyes. "It's fine, Rin invited you and I'd like you to come."

"I have a torch!" Rin exclaimed as she skidded to a stop at their side, pink Hello Kitty torch in-hand and wearing wellington boots that were obviously meant for a man.

_Souta's_, Kagome recognised after a moment, seeing the daughter of her dearly departed brother in his wellingtons brought her heart into her chest. Rin probably knew whose they were and if this was how she felt close to her father, Kagome wouldn't stop her.

_Six years already, huh? _

"Let's go!" Kagome tried to match Rin's enthusiasm, the girl was accepting of it, but Sesshoumaru's hand tightening on her shoulder let her know that he didn't buy it.

Grabbing the penknife from the kitchen drawer, Kagome ignored Sesshoumaru's raised eyebrow and followed Rin's lonely light out into the deafening darkness of the night.

Golden eyes flashing, Sesshoumaru followed after.

"Kagome-obasan!" Rin called from the distance, her torch light bobbing as she bounced up and down on her heels in her anxiousness.

"We're coming," Kagome bid her, hurrying across the moonlit garden to the faint outline of Rin, Sesshoumaru caught her elbow, mindful of the dips and bumps in the garden that the night-blind woman was unaware of.

Rin was stood under an old tall tree tracing her tiny fingers over the numerous grooves in the surface of the darkened bark.

Upon closer inspection, Sesshoumaru could clearly distinguish a number of indentations running up the tree in a line until they reached the height of a grown male, and, next to them, was a trail of indentations that only grew up to the height of Rin's eyebrows.

Stroking the indentation that was just at eyelevel, Rin smiled sweetly at Kagome over her shoulder.

"Back against it," Kagome instructed gently, putting a finger level with Rin's head as the girl pressed herself to the tree. Rin stepped away gleefully and Kagome carefully scored another notch in the tree with her penknife.

"Nearly as tall as your papa at your age," Kagome said, tracing a slightly wonky line between the two notches, "but then, he was always kind of scrawny," she smiled nostalgically as Rin leaned into her side, burying her head in Kagome's midriff, "probably why he liked climbing trees so much, the smaller you are the higher you want to be."

Crack.

The duo spun at the sound of the tree branch snapping, pulses racing, though Sesshoumaru stood nonchalantly by, his superior sense of smell alerting him to the intruder's identity.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed, relived that it was just her long-time friend.

"Hey," he murmured, nodding respectfully to Rin and Kagome, "Sesshoumaru, I need a word."

Kagome smiled as the half-brothers retreated a whiles away; this was probably a scheme of Kikyo's to allow Rin to spend some time alone with her and the memories of her father. Inuyasha generally would have point blank refused to talk to Sesshoumaru willingly; it appeared that Kikyo had a great deal of control over her puppy-husband.

"You see those apple trees?" Kagome asked Rin, as soon as the brothers had left her sight, pointing at the apple trees hanging over the fence of the border to their lands.

"Mhmm," Rin murmured softly, clinging to Kagome's pyjama t-shirt.

"When Souta... when your dad was a year older than you he decided he had to have one of those apples, and of course, by this time climbing trees was second nature to him."

"But, that tree's not on shrine property," Rin mumbled, slightly confused.

"I know," Kagome replied lightly, "and Souta knew that too, but he also thought he was good enough to get away with it, the idiot."

Rin giggled, hiding her face in Kagome's shirt as it turned into a watery hiccup.

"He got the apples alright, but on escape he put his hand in a birds nest, panicked and fell," Kagome chuckled, "I think he must have been made of rubber of something, because he only bruised his bottom... and his pride. Not to mention, mama saw and he was grounded for so long! She took the apples from him too, and let me and grandpa eat them instead of him."

Rin's face peeked up to gaze at the apple tree longingly. "Dad... dad was silly, huh?"

Kagome clung to Rin as tightly as the girl could stand. "Sometimes... sometimes he was brave and gentle, sometimes he was a brat who would tease me and play pranks on me, sometimes he would sulk and be moody. But he was always your dad and always my brother."

There was a stretch of silence, encompassing them in their moment of solitary grief, of melancholy memories, of wistful wishes.

Up above them, a star fell from the sky in a brilliant arc of light. And Kagome wished.

_Fly free, brother_.

Rin, who had looked at the star with her fingers crossed, composed herself and flicked a wry glance at her aunt. "But now you have Sesshoumaru-san?"

"Sesshoumaru is a jerk and he definitely sulks over his inability to cook," Kagome conceded laughingly, "but he's never played an outright prank on me like your dad used to, I don't think he has it in him."

"Tell me about the time dad locked you in the storehouse," Rin pleaded.

"That again?" Kagome exclaimed, a half-laugh in her voice, "I think I've told you that one a million times already, Rin."

"Again!"

This time, the cracking of twigs was preceded by a prickling sensation at the back of Kagome's neck, so whilst her heart jumped into her throat, she did not jump a little into the air as Rin did.

A man in a priest's garb stepped from the foliage and blinked in surprise when he saw them.

"Who are you?" Kagome demanded, voice terse as she clutched Rin to her side.

The man smiled a gentle reassuring smile and spread his hands peaceably. "You are Kagome-san, correct? Your grandfather speaks of you very often," he sketched a polite bow, "I am the new priest your grandfather recruited to help around the shrine with the visitors and rituals and whatnot."

By this time, Sesshoumaru had breezed back into the dell, eyes guarded as he perused the form of the priest snootily.

The priest straightened from his bow and nodded in a clipped manner at Sesshoumaru.

"Why are you hear so late at night?" Sesshoumaru demanded coldly.

"I am always here," the priest answered calmly, "Mrs Higurashi has graciously allowed me board in one of the storehouses."

"You live in a storehouse?" Rin piped up curiously, removing her face from Kagome's midriff.

The monk smiled down at her. "It is enough of a home for me, little one."

Rin blinked a few times and scrunched up her nose before brightening. "You're that priest who came into school to talk to us about the meaning behind the tanabata festival!"

The monk nodded astutely. "Yes, I recognised you... Rin I believe?"

"Yep," Rin nodded.

"Well then," Sesshoumaru interjected, glaring frostily at a suddenly stiff priest – who looked annoyed at the interruption, though he pasted a smile across his face – "we will be leaving."

"See you later, Rin-chan, Kagome-san!"

Kagome cast him an uneasy look over her shoulder as Sesshoumaru frogmarched her and Rin back to the house at a breakneck pace.

Once they were safely inside the Higurashi home, Kagome turned to Sesshoumaru, who looked about as tense as the string of a bow.

"What's the matter?" she asked softly, placing a calming hand on his elbow.

"There was something about that priest..."

"What is it?"

Golden eyes flickered sideways as he held her concerned gaze. "Why would a priest need to mask his scent?"


	57. Secretly Defensive

Title: Secretly Defensive

Author: aimee_blue

Prompt: Ignore

Words: 200

Rating: T

Genre: Drama Romance

Summary: AU. Sesshoumaru defends.

The Higurashi's shrine offered numerous rooms in which Sesshoumaru could practise with his _bokken_ before the household awoke. Sleep was hard for him to come by and with the added peculiarity that shady priest he didn't trust meant sleep was almost impossible.

Hair tied into a topknot, he moved with deadly purpose across the tatami-mat-covered floor.

_That priest is a danger, he must be eliminated..._

Sesshoumaru had learned that the deceitful priest was named Ungai; that name alone had raised his hackles.

_I will protect Kagome_.

Even Sesshoumaru was not stubborn enough to deny that Kagome was special to him. Mrs Higurashi's comments about children were impossible to ignore and _really_ not helping his attempts at remaining a gentleman. Eyes hooding at the thought of his and Kagome's children, his next step almost faltered, but he regained his composure quickly.

The opening of the sliding door made Sesshoumaru's eyes glint dangerously. It was the priest, he was still masking his scent.

"Ah," the priest feigned surprise at finding Sesshoumaru as he casually snagged a _bokken_, "Good morning."

The priest adopted a half-crouch, hefting his _bokken_.

_He's challenging me?_

Sesshoumaru's lips curled into a smirk that promised death. "Come."

_For Kagome._..


	58. Secret Plots and Plans

Title: Secret Plots and Plans  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Pure  
Words: 300  
Genre: Drama Romance  
Rating: T  
Summary: Ungai is determined to wrench Kagome and Sesshoumaru apart.

Ungai was not an imbecile, contrary to what the heinous demon in front of him seemed to think. Indeed, Ungai was not an idiot; he was a strategist. This demon wearing a human façade had more outright power than him but Ungai was not a beast. He had plans to save Higurashi Kagome from this… thing, and this particular plan involved baiting the beast.

When Ungai had been young he'd visited the zoo with his mother and she'd told him, whilst watching the mighty lions lounge around morosely in their cages, that you mustn't bait a beast. But Ungai disagreed with her; surely you could bait a beast; provided the beast was caged.

Ungai backed away from the demon, holding his _bokken_ at the ready as he goaded the demon simply by existing. Strangely they seemed to hate each other for the same reason.

_Follow me, demon, loose all rationale, because when you do, I have a cage with your name on it…_

Wooden blades clashed with a clank, and Ungai, abruptly feeling the strain from the sheer might of the demon's physical strength, pushed back with his purification abilities. Sending a singed Sesshoumaru skidding back a few paces.

The silver haired demon sneered at him. "I see," he purred, infliction deadly.

"I doubt it," Ungai spat, realising his aura of purification around him so that it billowed about him in a blue plume of rage.

Sesshoumaru's lips curled into a vicious fang baring smirk as his own aura exploded; a vicious vortex of killing intent that simultaneously chilled Ungai to the bone and strengthened his resolve.

_I will not let this beast near Higurashi Kagome_, Ungai vowed, gritting his teeth and drafting his courage into service even as the chilling demonic energy crackled across his skin.

He would win.


	59. Secret Rescuer

Title: Secret Rescuer  
Author: aimee_blue  
Prompt: Tempest  
Words: 2,249  
Rating: T  
Genre: Romance Drama  
Summary: AU. Kagome and Sesshoumaru are confronted and Rin saves the day.  
A/N: Part of my serial Himitsu

Mrs Higurashi glanced up from her broiling pan as a sleepy, bleary eyed, mused haired Kagome shuffled into the kitchen in her mint green slippers. Rin followed shortly behind her aunt, a skip in her step, clearly the little girl was a morning person.

Kikyo, who was sat at the kitchen table with Grandpa, put aside her paper to smirk at Kagome's bedraggled appearance.

"Good morning," she quipped silkily.

Kagome scowled and claimed a seat at the table next to Rin. "Is it?"

Kikyo's smirk grew as she sipped her orange juice. "I think so."

"Where is Sesshoumaru?" Mrs Higurashi inquired as she carefully poured out Grandpa's tea into his favourite mug.

Kagome blinked, bemused. "I thought he was down here," Kagome confessed, running a hand through her hair, "I woke up and he wasn't there."

"He went out to the dojo to practise with his bokken," Kikyo revealed.

"The dojo?" Grandpa Higurashi piped up interestedly, "that's where Ungai-san said he was headed off to, to do some meditation I think."

Kagome's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. "You mean they're together?" she shrieked, jumping out of her seat and slamming her palms down onto the table.

Her family looked at her like she was crazy and Kikyo nodded hesitantly.

"That's not good!" Kagome squalled, sprinting from the room as fast as her slipper-covered feet could carry her, Rin following hot on her heels.

0-0-0

The little dojo-like room that lay on their lands looked to be completely peaceful, at first glance. But it soon became apparent as they drew closer that the building was ...vibrating?

The tingle that shot down Kagome's spine made her grab Rin and duck to one side... just as the door exploded outwards and Sesshoumaru and Ungai followed suit, locked in some kind of vicious looking combat. They landed gracefully on the newly mown grass of the shrine grounds and then recklessly flung themselves back at each other.

Spitting grass, Kagome propped herself up on her elbows and watched as Sesshoumaru and the weird priest tried to kill each other.

There was a brief pause in the fierce physical spat where Kagome gathered that the combatants hadn't noticed them.

"You have dropped the ward on your scent," Sesshoumaru snarled, eyes ringed with the beast-like red of his bloodthirsty instincts. "I know you."

Ungai laughed, eyes wide and mad and mocking. "Irked that I trespassed on your territory, puppy?"

Kagome gulped, if he was going to bait Sesshoumaru like that he was going to die.

There was a snarl and Sesshoumaru threw himself across the clearing, wooden sword stuck in the grass and apparently completely forgotten, his claws extended and glowed the eerie green of his poison.

Kagome watched as Sesshoumaru ruthlessly struck out against the human man who was being forced back but seemed to be relatively able to combat the poison and youki with his own purification abilities. They were trying to either maim or kill each other, she realized in a kind of dazed epiphany.

A sense of dread settled into her stomach, the kind of dread that had absolutely nothing to do with her recent revelation. It was the kind of dread that she'd felt the day Souta had died.

"Sesshoumaru!" she shrieked, jerking unsteadily off of the ground only to stagger to one knee as her legs refused to cooperate with the blaze of instinct that had triggered the reaction to defend.

I have to save him!

But her body was uncooperative and refused to move fast enough to stop what happened next.

It appeared that in the time Ungai had been backing up, he'd not been doing it purely because he was physically overpowered but because he was leading Sesshoumaru somewhere.

Right into a trap.

It snapped around Sesshoumaru instantly, like a Venus fly trap, and trapped him in a cage of brilliant blue purification.

The roar that echoed through the clearing then chilled Ungai to the bone, but made Kagome's heart lurch in her chest.

"Don't!" she cried, already predicting what Sesshoumaru was about to attempt.

Warning ignored, Sesshoumaru hurled himself at the bars of his cage, his orb of white light forming as if in protection of its mater. He was flung backwards and crashed into the turf beneath him, creating a large gash in the earth, singed but otherwise completely unruffled and completely pissed off.

Ungai turned his attention on to Kagome then, dusting his hands and smiling cheerfully.

Kagome gazed blandly at him, stepping to one side so that she covered Rin with her body, and the little girl fisted a hand in the bottom of Kagome's shirt.

"You're the one who's been stalking us?" Kagome asked calmly.

Empathetically spreading his hands, he spoke to Kagome as if she was a wild animal he needed to calm down. "I was merely protecting you from that beast," he uttered, chucking a thumb over his shoulder at said beast, who was still attempting the brute force approach and flinging himself at the bars repeatedly. Kagome winced every time he did it, but Sesshoumaru was too preoccupied by the way that the priest was advancing on Kagome to care about much else.

"Sesshoumaru is my boyfriend," Kagome exaggerated the last word as she scowled at the priest, "and I don't need you to protect me, more likely I need to be protected from you."

Ungai blinked, bewildered by her lack of gratitude as he had saved her from the demon, but then something appeared to dawn on him and his features smoothed out into a pitying look that made Kagome want to punch him. "I see," he murmured, "you still believe yourself to be tainted as he is."

At this, Kagome was completely wrong footed; just what was this crazy man talking about?

"It's not your fault, Kagome-san," he uttered kindly, reaching out to lay a consoling hand on her arm, but she pressed backwards, keeping Rin behind her.

"What's not my fault?" she asked, almost worried at the answer.

"Why, it's not your fault that Souta is dead, is what I mean."

Rin made a whimpering noise and Kagome tried her best to hug the girl whilst keeping the child hidden behind her.

"Don't you dare," she snarled angrily, "don't you dare talk about my brother."

"But," Ungai continued on regardless of her threats, "I know about your power, to see the future. It must have been horrifying for you to know Souta was going to die and be unable to stop it."

Kagome choked, eyes wide as she stared numbly at him. "What?"

"Surely you saw that Souta was going to die? With your precognition you must have known."

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and Kagome lowered her head. "Shut up," she ordered gruffly.

"It's okay," Ungai consoled.

Kagome felt Rin slip away from her back and her hands clenched into fists.

"I told you to shut up!" she raged, eyes blazing as they met his gaze. "Don't talk about what you don't understand."

"But I do understand," he cooed and for the first time in her life, Kagome hated with an intensity that she wanted to rip this man's throat out. "But letting your brother die and go into the hands of the lord is not a crime. Debasing yourself with this demon is not what he would have wanted."

"You think you know Souta?" she demanded shrilly, "you think you know me?"

Sighing benevolently, Ungai said, "I understand that you're angry, Kagome-san."

She didn't have enough time to deal with this idiot, Kagome decided, tossing a worried glance at the red-eyed Sesshoumaru. It seemed he was losing control of his demonic instincts. Kagome yanked Sesshoumaru's discarded bokken from the ground jerkily. "How about I let you understand a little more?" she snarled.

Behind Ungai, Sesshoumaru roared his wrath to the skies, his unleashed demonic energies whipping around him in a tempest of temper as the desire to gut Ungai grew and plagued him unstoppably.

Ungai's eyes grew very wide as she advanced on him with the bokken held wrongly, but surely. It was clear that this had never occurred to him when he'd been scheming about cages made of purification energy and playing knight to a damsel in distress that would rather stay in distress.

As she hefted the bokken as if to hit him, he found his knees had locked. Strange how facing a demon hadn't seemed as terrifying as facing a little human woman in her pyjamas who couldn't even hold a sword properly.

She brought the bokken down sharply and he shrieked in fright as she stopped an inch before his head; his legs gave out and he tumbled jelly-like to the grass beneath him. He found that he was panting uncontrollably and his eyes were wide and horror struck as Kagome stood over him.

"Tch," she dismissed him with an arrogant toss of her hair and, pitching the bokken over her shoulder, she walked slowly towards Sesshoumaru who was lost in a mindless rage.

"Don't!" he croaked out, attempting to prevent her being mauled by this senseless beast. She ignored him.

Blue eyes wide, Kagome approached the trap Sesshoumaru had gotten tangled in. Inside the cage, Sesshoumaru snarled and raged and howled his fury and Kagome realised he was probably too lost in the inferno of his ire to recognise her. Instead of terrifying her as it probably should have done, she was completely calmed by it. He'd gotten like this because he was concerned over her well being; her heart melted a little more.

Corrosive poisons dripped from his claws and gouged their way into the earth with a faint hissing noise. His eyes were wide and crimson at this point, pupils slits of turquoise as he snarled and bared his fearsome fangs. Probably only the stinging compression of the cage Ungai had trapped him in was keeping him from reverting to his demonic form.

Ignoring Ungai's cautionary wailing, Kagome stepped through the blue barrier.

Ungai stared after her in horror. This woman had broken his cage.

Worse, she'd infiltrated his cage to be with a demon, regardless of the fact that he would rip her limb from limb.

"How... how is that possible?" he asked in a croaky whisper.

Kagome rolled her eyes concentrating on Sesshoumaru who hadn't advanced on her, but instead seemed content to growl menacingly at her. "Your cage is demon-proofed, but you forgot to human proof it, baka. You never even considered that I would choose to help Sesshoumaru out."

Ungai's words failed him as Kagome slowly reached out her hand towards Sesshoumaru, attempting to be as unthreatening as was possible.

Sesshoumaru's deep red eyes stared at her hand distrustfully for a moment before he butted her hand with his nose and , grabbing her wrist to prevent escape, he began sniffing her wrist and up her arm until his face was buried in the crook of her throat.

Sighing in relief, Kagome threw her free arm around his broad shoulders and hugged the lightly singed Sesshoumaru as tightly as she dared.

"There now," she cooed calmingly, "we're okay now."

Ungai, who still hadn't quite regained his legs, sputtered at the improper embrace. "How can you stand to touch that thing?"

Sesshoumaru, still not quite his usual reserved self, reacted badly to the sound of Ungai's prejudice and snarled nastily. Kagome whimpered as his hold on her tightened and his claws dug ever so slightly into the delicate skin of her wrist where he was gripping her. This seemed to startle Sesshoumaru, who let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whimper of apology as he pulled her wrist to his mouth to lap at her wounds. This act of caring seemed to bring Sesshoumaru back to himself somewhat, and red abated back into gold slowly as he locked his gaze with hers.

"Kagome."

"Sesshoumaru," she smiled softly and then flung herself at him so hard he staggered back a few paces, his arms full of a decidedly relieved Kagome. Sesshoumaru allowed a rare tiny smile to tug at the corner of her lips as she pressed thousands of tiny thankful butterfly kisses to his face hair and neck.

Meanwhile, Ungai was having a small breakdown. "You're delusional," he screamed, pointing at Kagome fiercely, eyes large and panicked.

"Says you," Kagome replied acerbically, tossing her hair derisively.

Sesshoumaru was straining at his figurative choke-chain even as Kagome looped her legs around his hips and hung onto his neck like a monkey. He still wanted to kill Ungai, regardless of the fact that the priest seemed to be having a breakdown.

"I'll have to quarantine you," he rambled, eyes darting around in his head, "In a better cage."

And then he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

The cage fizzled with one last reluctant spark of energy into nothingness.

"Shut up!" Inuyasha snarled, holding the bokken that he had apparently used as a club on the priest's head. "Have you got any idea how hard it is to sleep with you making such a racket?"

Sesshoumaru and Kagome all blinked in amazement at their rescuer... who for less than noble reasons had possibly saved them from a priest who'd lost his grip on reality. Rin peered around from behind him, her small hand tucked into Inuyasha's larger one.

Rin gave them the thumbs up symbol and Kagome returned it gleefully.

Kagome prodded the priest with her foot gingerly and then glanced back over her shoulder at Sesshoumaru. "Should we call the police?"


	60. Secrets Revealed

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

**

* * *

Secret Burden**

The Higurashi family sat around the breakfast table, silence reigning as they waited for the police. Inuyasha was watching Ungai to make sure he didn't attempt escape.

Sesshoumaru was restraining himself from performing some Ungai-bashing of his own, Kagome was more important and thusly he sat at the table as close to her as was possible without sharing a seat.

"Kagome," Mrs Higurashi began in a calming tone, "are you okay?"

Kagome hadn't looked at anyone yet, since the incident, she'd become increasingly quiet.

"He was right."

Sesshoumaru tensed and the rest of the family swapped worried looks.

"I should have known Souta was going to die!" she whispered desolately, "The feeling of when dad died and when Souta died was the same! I should've recognised it."

"Kagome," Kikyo gasped.

"It's my fault that he's dead," she cried, her voice breaking, "Why didn't I notice..."

_Slap_.

Everyone turned to look incredulously at Mee, who was holding her stinging hand to her stomach and looking fierce.

"Are you an idiot?" she demanded harshly, tear tracks staining her cheeks.

"Mee!" Kikyo remonstrated.

"No!" Mee barked, fire blazing in her eyes, "Kagome!"

Kagome met Mee's eyes, nursing her stinging cheek.

"My husband had the eyes too," she said, eyes carrying a harrowing sorrow, "Souta could have predicted his own death and stopped it. The fact that he didn't see it coming can mean only one thing... you weren't meant to save him."

Inuyasha entered the kitchen, shattering the tension with his proclamation of, "The police are here."

Rin, who had been silent up until this point, wandered over to her aunt Kagome.

"Daddy... wouldn't want you to be so sad."

Sesshoumaru lifted Kagome to her feet and whispered. "There was never anything to forgive. So forgive yourself."

And Kagome smiled through her tears.

**

* * *

Secret Conclusions**

"They're taking an awfully long time at the police station," Mrs Higurashi fretted as she sat at the kitchen table with a pot of tea and Kikyo and Mee.

Mee smiled softly. "It will be okay, hopefully Kagome will have calmed down by the time they get home."

Mrs Higurashi sighed and sipped at her tea. "She's always been one for blaming herself."

"What I don't get is why Ungai even knew that Kagome was carrying the burden of Souta's death," Kikyo murmured.

Mee smiled and pulled a business card from her jeans pocket. "Must have been the fortune telling that she does."

"What," Kikyo muttered, inspecting Kagome's business card, "he made the leap from her precognition to this?"

"He worked for grandpa for a while," Mrs Higurashi murmured, "he must have been gathering up information."

"It's still a leap," Kikyo opined.

Mee shrugged. "Who knows what goes on in the mind of a madman like that? He made so many disillusioned leaps."

"That's just creepy," Kikyo winced, rubbing her belly gently, "but at least it's over now."

Mee nodded, stroking her wedding ring absentmindedly as she dwelled on her husband. "Souta will be happy if Kagome can forgive herself..."

**

* * *

Secret Descent into Madness**

Ungai gazed at the wall of his cell; a fractured mind splintered and lost its grip on reality. His mind couldn't carry the burden of the truth.

She wanted to be with a beast?

_Beasts should be caged... feared..._

No, she must still be in denial... yes that was it. This had all been orchestrated by that beast.

_Beasts will eat me... cage them quickly..._

Ungai glanced around wildly.

_Why am I in a cage? Why am I trapped?_

_No. Not trapped... in this cage I am protected, here the beasts can't find me_.

Darkness consumed darkness and was sated.

* * *

A/N: These snippets were written for fanfic_bakeoff's prompt #11 Carry and are 300, 200 and 100 words respectively.


	61. Secret Feelings

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this work of fiction.

* * *

They'd ordered a taxi back from the police station; Sesshoumaru wanted the privacy it would afford them for a short while. Kagome, at this point, was so tired she was slumping against his side like a rag-doll, relying on him to keep her standing. Sat in the back seat of the car, he marvelled over how... okay she seemed. Not many women were this composed after a crazed priest tried to purify their boyfriend to kingdom come.

But it seemed that she refused to bow under the pressures that their stress filled day had heaped upon them. Her chin was still tilted stubbornly, her shoulders straight and strong. Kagome wasn't the type to roll over and let life take its course. When hardships presented themselves in her path she refused to stop, instead she bulldozed right through them, much the same way she'd bulldozed into his life.

The first time he'd met her, she'd been sat in the park on the grass, holding the two halves of the skipping rope that Inuyasha had carelessly shredded. Sesshoumaru had expected a breakdown of some kind; most human females were prone to such. But she'd bit her lip, straightened her shoulders and, carrying enough venom in her eyes to impress Sesshoumaru, chased Inuyasha through the playground like a child possessed.

He'd been enthralled.

Looking down at her now, tasting her determination to conquer this tragedy, he couldn't even begin to understand why he'd never noticed. Kidding himself for so many years that she was simply an amusing toy.

Definitely not.

Then what was the feeling that swelled within his breast and made him mad at the thought of ever losing her?

That, he realised, was obvious. And humbling.

Love seemed to be that way though.

_Hnn... telling her such will be an experience_.

* * *

A/N: This piece was written for fanfic_bakeoff's prompt #11 Carry and is 300 words.


	62. Secretly Shy

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

* * *

In harmonious synchronisation, Kagome and Sesshoumaru flopped onto the sofa. The police had been grilling them for hours and it was the small hours of the morning by the time they'd been able to return to the shrine. Apparently, sending a psychopathic priest to jail wasn't as easy as you might have thought.

Leaning her head back against the sofa wearily, Kagome closed her eyes. Sesshoumaru, glancing at her with softened golden eyes, decided that there had never been anyone born quite like this woman. Even when he'd been so incensed that he'd been governing on murderous instincts alone, she'd still approached him, embraced him, accepted him in a way he'd been certain no human ever would. Such merits made her a bemusing, entrancing, bewitching woman.

Kagome squeaked in shock as Sesshoumaru rearranged their seating arrangements with demonic ease so that she was ensconced in his embrace with his face buried in her hair.

"You're an imprudent woman," he scolded, warm breath tickling the back of her neck, "to approach my beast."

"I try."

"I'm in love with a fool."

Kagome's nearly choked at this proclamation. _Did he just say he loved – wait, did he just call me a fool?_

The kiss he pressed to the back of her neck warmed her cheeks in a sweet blush.

"I... love you too," she admitted shyly, "even if you do insult me all the time." She attempted to look at him.

"No."

"Why?" she demanded, confused as to why he wouldn't let her look at him.

Embarrassed, Sesshoumaru merely shook his head and Kagome faced him regardless. Sesshoumaru soon found that embarrassment was cured by Kagome's tender kiss.

"Puppy-eared grandchildren!" Higurashi-san squealed, shattering the moment and exposing a small gaggle of gawking onlookers.

Kagome buried her face in a cushion.

_Untimely family..._

* * *

A/N: This was originally posted on dokuga_contest on November 29th 2010 for the prompt _Merit_.


	63. Last Secret

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

* * *

Kneeling down next to the grave with Rin, Kagome carefully emptied the dead flowers from the grave's vase and replaced them with the wildflower bouquet that Rin had gathered specially for her departed father.

The yipping of Rin's new puppy garnered Rin's attention and Mee jerked her head in a 'go on then' gesture. The child smiled and ran off to help Sesshoumaru deal with the rambunctious pup. Ever since Kagome had forbidden the mighty Inu from lording it over the little yippy puppy, the puppy had made Sesshoumaru's world a living hell whenever Rin brought him to visit.

"Hey, Souta," she murmured to the grave, snuggling into her scarf to stave off the chill as Mee used mitten covered hands to sweep the fallen leaves away from the headstone. "Did you see the crazy guy who attacked us last year?" Kagome asked conversationally. "He's dead now, he died in prison... but he helped me realise something," she sighed, "your death was never my fault, was it?"

Mee closed her eyes and clasped Kagome's cold hand with her own mitten covered one. She too missed her husband and, like Kagome, she'd blamed herself for the longest time. But she'd finally seen that it had been no one's fault. And that was why it had hurt so much. There had been no one to blame for her husband's death.

The wind picked up then, tussling Kagome's hair in a way that reminded her so much of her little brother's old affectionate gesture that it _ached_. Dropping her free hand to her gently swelling stomach, she smiled happily, though a lone tear escaped. "And we're carrying now," She laughed. "Mama was over the moon about puppy-eared grandchildren," she told Souta, "You're an uncle!"

A warm hand came down on her shoulder and Kagome glanced up at the worried expression Sesshoumaru wore. She smiled brightly, though the effect was a little watery.

"Just telling him the good news," she murmured as he tucked her under his arm, breath mingling.

"Daddy is happy," Rin told them, holding her puppy tightly. Mee's eyes softened and she rumpled her daughter's hair tenderly.

"Of course!" Kagome beamed.

Sesshoumaru nudged the top of her head with his nose. "Though keeping the gender a secret from you is frustrating."

"Don't you dare tell me!" Kagome protested giddily, "I want it to be a surprise!"

Mee's eyes crinkled as she basked in the warmth of her family. Out there, somewhere, she knew Souta watched; happy. His family was happy and the only secrets were happy ones.

* * *

~End~

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A/N: Thank you all for reading!


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